U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., writes in POLITICO that health care takeover legislation in the Senate does, in fact, allow for taxpayer-funded abortion:
The amended bill in the Senate does not include the Stupak amendment language from the House bill that would prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for elective abortions. Instead, states are given the option to opt out of providing insurance coverage of abortions. But while states are given the option to opt out, taxpayers in a state that opts out would still see their federal tax dollars fund elective abortions in other states. In other words, even taxpayers in states that opt out of providing abortion coverage cannot opt out of paying for elective abortion.
Brownback still sees some hope, though, if a conference committee can’t work out differences between the House and Senate versions:
Even if the Democrats are able to ram this bill through the Senate, there is still hope that it may founder in the conference with House Democrats. Both abortion rights supporters and anti-abortion advocates on the House side have pledged to vote against the current abortion-funding language in the Reid amendment and called it unacceptable. Since the Democrats are working with a thin margin of support for the bill in the House, it is just possible that the attempt to use health care reform to force taxpayer funding for abortion will end up killing the bill. This is now the central debate in reconciling the differences between the House and Senate Democratic bills. If the issue of abortion funding brings down this bill, it will be a victory for the cause of protecting innocent human life. That would be an irony that Henry Hyde would have greatly appreciated.
Update: The Weekly Standard provides more details on the abortion deal: “Senator [Ben] Nelson’s ‘compromise’ leaves Nebraska’s voters entirely vulnerable to paying for California’s and New York’s abortions.”
