All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Pressure on Democrats to abandon abortion restrictions added to the House health care legislation continues to grow, just as the debate over the divisive issue heads to the Senate.

More than 500 people from 30 states gathered at the Capitol today in opposition to an amendment to the health care overhaul that would restrict health insurance coverage for abortion. The so-called Stupak amendment, introduced by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.), made it into the House bill last month.

The group of abortion rights supporters in Washington today were organized by a coalition made up of dozens of groups that advocate for issues like abortion rights, women's rights, and civil rights. The "Coalition to Pass Health Care Reform and Stop Stupak" held the event with some of its strongest backers in Congress, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Citizens in attendance also directly lobbied their own representatives.

Today's lobbying activities were part of a week of events the coalition is organizing to raise awareness of the Stupak amendment, including at more than 120 college campus events and online. The lobbying has largely focused on Democrats. Sixty-four Democrats joined 176 Republicans to pass the Stupak amendment.

Read full post…

Sen. Ben Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska, intends to introduce an amendment to the Senate health care bill that would add controversial abortion language similar to the Stupak amendment in the House bill, CBS News Capitol Hill Producer John Nolen reports.

"I'm working on an amendment to bring Stupak language to the bill," Nelson said today, referencing an amendment added to the House health care bill by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.).

The amendment restricts health insurance coverage for abortion and has raised the ire of abortion rights groups. A coalition of those groups are launching a "day of action" on Wednesday to lobby against the amendment.

Nelson has said he may join a Republican filibuster against the health care bill unless it is changed to his liking, something that would include adding the Stupak language. Even though the Stupak amendment made it through the House, some Democratic House members are now saying they have enough votes to block any bill that comes back to the House with the language intact.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care

Americans would strongly prefer a health care bill that includes a public option to a bill without it, a new CBS News poll shows, and only one in four say their preference is no health care legislation at all.

However, most Americans remain doubtful that the proposals currently before Congress would help them personally, according to the poll, conducted Nov. 13 -16. And amid a debate over restricting abortion coverage in the health care bill, more than half say federal subsidies for health care plans should not be allowed to pay for abortions.


The Public Option

When asked what kind of health care bill Congress should pass, 51 percent of Americans said a bill that contains a government-run health insurance plan, or "public option." Sixteen percent said a bill without a public option, while only 26 percent said they want no bill at all. Seven percent did not know or had no answer.

Democrats (by 72 percent to 13 percent) and independents (by 47 percent to 15 percent) prefer a bill with a public option over a bill without one. Among Republicans, just 23 percent want a public option, 20 percent want a bill without it, and 51 percent want no health care reform bill at all.

Read full post…

Abortion rights advocates are ratcheting up their pressure on lawmakers to drop the proposal added to the House health care bill that would restrict health insurance coverage for abortions.

The Center for Reproductive Rights is launching an ad campaign today to emphasize that, if the Stupak amendment were to pass in the final health care bill, millions of women could potentially lose the coverage for abortions they currently have in their health care plans.

The group is running an ad online and on cable markets in the Washington area, leading up to the abortion debate that is sure to spring up in the Senate.

The so-called Stupak amendment would prevent women who receive federal subsidies for health insurance from purchasing plans that cover abortion. It would also explicitly ban abortion coverage from the government-run plan, or "public option." It would also essentially prevent private insurers from selling plans on the national health insurance exchange that cover abortion.

In other words, women who intend to use government subsidies for health care costs could be forced to switch plans. Additionally, if a woman's employer were to start offering coverage under the national health insurance exchange, she could potentially have to switch plans.

"Anti-choice forces in Washington are trying to use this important moment of health insurance reform to expand restrictions on abortion coverage in private insurance plans," Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup told CBSNews.com. The extent of the amendment's impact on coverage is surprising, she said.

Read full post…

Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET with reaction from RNC Chair Michael Steele.

The Republican National Committee offers its employees insurance coverage for elective abortions, the Politico reports. That’s a seeming contradiction to the party platform and the GOP’s current position on an abortion amendment added to the House health care bill.

The GOP platform calls elective abortion "a fundamental assault on innocent human life," according to Politico.

RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho reportedly said the policy has been in effect since 1991, long before current RNC Chairman Michael Steele assumed his leadership role. Upon learning of the coverage in their insurance plan, Steele instructed the RNC to opt out of any coverage for elective abortion services.

"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said in a statement. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

Originally, the RNC chose not to opt out of abortion coverage, Cigna representatives told Politico.

Almost every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted in favor of an amendment to the Democrats' health care bill, offered by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.), that explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for plans that cover abortion. It also effectively limits private insurers from being able to offer abortion coverage within the proposed national health insurance exchange. The amendment passed with some Democratic support.

The only Republican who bucked the party and voted "present" on the amendment did so in an attempt to foil the overall health care bill's chances of passage.

"We believe in the sanctity of life, and the Stupak-Pitts Amendment addresses a moral issue of the utmost concern," House GOP leaders John Boehner (R-Ohio), Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said in a statement after the vote. "It will limit abortion in the United States. Because of this, while we strongly and deeply oppose the underlying bill, we decided to stand with Life and support Stupak-Pitts."

Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** Obama sounds uncomfortable with the health care bill's abortion amendment...

** The president settles on a new Afghanistan strategy...

** Restoring American influence in Asia...

FORT HOOD: President Obama and the first lady travel to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas today to meet with the families of those killed during last week's shootings as well as with wounded soldiers.

Mr. Obama will then address the Fort Hood community during a memorial service. Later, Mr. and Mrs. Obama will meet with wounded soldiers at Darnall Army Medical Center before flying back to Washington.

CBS News coverage of the Fort Hood tragedy

Associated Press' Ben Feller, "Obama pressed into role as national healer"

Read full post…

The passage of comprehensive health care legislation in the House of Representatives Saturday night was bittersweet for many liberal supporters of reform, and profoundly disturbing for those primarily concerned about the right to have an abortion.

The inclusion of Rep. Bart Stupak's restrictive abortion amendment in the bill has prompted well-established abortion-rights groups to oppose the entire House bill, and it is drawing the ire of feminist bloggers and activists. Pro-abortion rights members of Congress are also attempting to derail the final passage of any bill that includes the Stupak amendment. Yet as the Democrats' reform package teeters between success and failure -- with just a few more votes needed to kill the bill -- it remains to be seen whether leaders will risk stripping out the amendment, which was added to win over conservative Democrats.

The Stupak amendment passed on the House floor Saturday with the support of 64 Democrats -- of whom 62 were men, liberal bloggers have been quick to point out.

The provision would prevent women who receive subsidies to purchase insurance that covers abortion -- inside or outside of the proposed national health insurance exchange. It would also explicitly ban abortion coverage from the government-run plan, or "public option." While it does not explicitly prohibit private plans on the exchange from offering abortion coverage, insurers would have little incentive to offer abortion coverage, since most customers on the exchange would pay with subsidies.

"Abortion is a matter of conscience on both sides of the debate," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). "This amendment takes away that same freedom of conscience from America's women. It prohibits them from access to an abortion even if they pay for it with their own money. It invades women's personal decisions."

Read full post…

To say it's a big day on Capitol Hill would be an understatement. Congress rarely meets on a Saturday. It's no regular occurrence for President Obama to come to the Hill to meet with the House Democratic Caucus. And Democrats are increasingly confident that they have the votes to make history and pass H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" tonight.

"We will pass healthcare reform," Pelosi said confidently to reporters after meeting this morning with the president.

But there are still twists and turns that Democratic leadership and proponents of the bill could face this evening.

Just last night, Democratic leadership gave up on efforts to work out a compromise between Democrats who support abortion rights, those who do not and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The original abortion language required that the exchange have at least one plan that covered abortion and one that did not. It would have required all insurance companies in the exchange to put federal funds and private premiums in separate accounts to make sure abortions were only paid for with private funds. Opponents of abortion rights called that simply a line on the ledger.

Speaker Pelosi realized that to get the votes for the overall bill, she would have to allow Democrats against abortion rights, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the chance to offer an amendment that would essentially bar insurance companies in the health insurance exchange from covering abortion. Stupak has been threatening for weeks to block the bill if he did not have the chance to offer his amendment and said he had around 40 members who would vote with him.

Between Democrats and Republicans in the House who are opponents of abortion rights, the Stupak amendment could very well pass tonight. The speaker put 190 members of the Pro-Choice Caucus in the awkward position of wanting a health care reform bill, but not wanting to support that abortion language either.

Read full post…

Democrats in the House can only afford to lose 40 members of their caucus when they vote on health care legislation this weekend, and leaders are scrambling to assuage the concerns of certain groups, particularly the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Democrats concerned over abortion issues.

There are already about 25 Democrats who almost certainly will vote against the Democrats' health care package, according to the Washington Post.

On Thursday, the Hispanic caucus told President Obama he could lose 20 more votes if revisions pertaining to immigration are made to the House bill, according to various reports. Mr. Obama met at the White House Thursday with a handful of CHC members, including Caucus Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.).

The lawmakers said they opposed a provision from the Senate health care bill that would prohibit illegal immigrants from buying private insurance plans on the new health insurance exchanges to be created, even with their own money. If the provision is added to the House bill, "I guess they won't have those 20 votes" hinging on the issue, Velazquez said, the Post reports.

Read full post…

As the debate over abortion rights has been injected into the health care deliberations this year, more Americans say they are opposed to strong abortion rights than in previous years, making the country evenly split on the issue, according to a new poll.

Down seven points from last year, 47 percent of Americans said this summer that abortion should be legal in most cases, according to a poll (PDF) from the Pew Research Center. The poll, conducted from Aug. 11 - 27, 2009, found that 45 percent of Americans said abortion should be illegal in most cases -- an increase of four points from 2008.

The decline in support for legal abortion first became apparent in the spring of 2009, and according to Pew, that may be related to President Obama's election. Just over half of conservative Republicans polled by Pew said they worry the president will go too far in supporting abortion rights.

"No single reason for the shift in opinions is apparent, but the pattern of changes suggests that the election of a pro-choice Democrat for president may be a contributing factor," a summary of the poll says.

Read full post…