Politico reports:
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) wants to see abortion language as restrictive as the Stupak amendment in the health care reform bill, his spokesman told POLITICO Monday.
“Senator Nelson is strongly prolife and was pleased the Stupak amendment passed with such strong support,” Thompson said in a statement. “He believes that no federal money—including subsidies or tax credits–should be used to buy insurance coverage for abortion. This is a very important issue to Senator Nelson and it is highly unlikely he would support a bill that doesn’t clearly prohibit federal dollars from going to abortion.”
Thompson said Nelson could not support anything less than Stupak amendment.
As good as that sounds, according to Talking Points Memo, Nelson might be satsified with language similar to the Capps amendment (a phony measure that would not only fail to restrict abortion subsidies, but mandate them) nor will he block Obamacare in the Senate if there is not a Stupak-like amendment.
Meanwhile, the National Journal reports that Reps. Diana DeGette (D, Col) and Louise Slaughter (D, NY) the co-chairwomen of the House Pro-Choice Caucus sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying they will vote against any conference report containing the Stupak language.
