Senate Votes to Keep Abortion in Health Care (396 hits)
A late-night vote along party lines allows abortion coverage to stand in health care reform. Working into the night Sunday and early Monday morning, Senate Democrats inched closer to passing health care reform legislation that includes federal funding for abortion. At 1:00 a.m. eastern time on Monday, they voted 60-40 to close debate on the manager's amendment. A manager's amendment is a package of numerous individual amendments agreed to by both sides in advance.
Life advocates were disappointed because Democratic hold-out, Sen. Ben Nelson of Neb., suddenly changed his mind after a series of negotiations Friday night. Some reports suggest Nelson received special consideration for pet projects in his home state in return for his vote...
[Democrats Face Challenge in Merging Health Bills]
WASHINGTON — Even as the Senate took a significant step toward passing its version of a sweeping overhaul of the health insurance system before Christmas, Democrats were grappling Monday with deep internal divisions over abortion, the issue that most complicates their drive to merge the Senate and House bills and send final legislation to President Obama.
