Not too long ago the big question surrounding healthcare reform was whether or not the House and the Senate could get enough votes to pass a public option as a way to compete with private industry and keep overall costs to the American consumer down.  That is no longer the case, as yesterday Majority Senate leader Harry Reid (D- NV) tapped 10 democratic senators, 5 liberal and 5 conservative, to find a way forward on the stalled public option in the Senate.  Despite the difficulties the Democrats have had to get on the same page when it comes to a public option, a special interest group has hijacked the discussion by trying to alter the existing laws dealing with abortion.  Before we get into why the anti-abortion crowd is trying to take advantage of this process, lets go back along memory lane and see what brought us to this point.

Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) introduced an amendment during debate on the House version of a health reform bill which called for a ban on all abortions under the new exchanges defined under the House healthcare bill.  This meant that despite the language already included within the bill which banned public money funding any abortions, it would actually ban private insurers from offering medical insurance that covered abortions bought by consumers with their own money.  Not only is this a politically motivated move, it is a frightening rollback of women's rights under the guise of healthcare reform. 

Why would such an amendment pass you may ask?  It passed because Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) felt that it was urgent to get the bill out of the House, so she agreed to support the amendment knowing that the amendment could be removed during the process whereby the House and Senate bills are reconciled into one identical bill for Congress to vote on. 

Now we have arrived at the Senate and their version of a healthcare bill.  While debate initially began surrounding a way to get 60 votes for the Senate bill that included a public option in the face of stiff opposition from the likes of Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), it was overshadowed once again by the Stupak amendment.  However, this time it wasn't called the Stupak amendment even though it was virtually identical, this time it was introduced by conservative Democrat Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) who declared that he would filibuster any bill that didn't include this language.  Why is it that it's always old white guys telling women how to run their lives?

This is where we are this morning, although we'll know later today whether or not the Senate version of the Stupak amendment passes.  I'll leave it to you how much you care about women's rights, but as far as I'm concerned I hope this last vestige of the culture wars dies a quick death so that the politicians focus on giving the American people what they need.  Healthcare.