The sources for this article are The Hill and Hot Air. My focus is on Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska, and his stand for life. Senator Nelson has stated that no federal funds should pay for abortions. The banning of the use of federal funds to pay for abortions has been in place for 30 years.
The article in The Hill points out:
""No one should use the healthcare bill to expand or restrict abortion," Reid said during an emotional floor speech. "And no one should use the issue of abortion to rob millions of the opportunity to get good healthcare."
"Six Democrats voted with Nelson: Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Ted Kaufman (Del.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.)."
The two Republican Senators from Maine voted against the Nelson amendment.
Senator Nelson had stated that he would not support any bill that used public funds for abortion, but Hot Air quotes his statement after the vote:
"I want to continue to work on this," he said, not ruling out his support, at least "not at this point in time. I want to continue to work on the project we're working on... This makes it harder right now [to support the bill]. We'll have to see if they can make it easier."
That really does not sound like a statement from someone who is willing to stand on his principles; it sounds more like someone who is waiting to see what he can get for his vote.
There is a website called the National Center for Policy Analysis which supports consumer driven healthcare. It is a good place to gather information on what is happening with healthcare legislation and what the alternative proposals to the current healthcare bill are and how they would impact healthcare.
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