Meet the 28 (Male) Anti-Choice Dems Who Are Stalling Health Reform

Posted by mcjoan, Daily Kos at 3:00 PM on November 3, 2009.

WaPo reports today that a number of anti-choice holdouts among Democrats are "threatening to oppose the measure over the issue of abortion to create a question about its passage."

"I will continue whipping my colleagues to oppose bringing the bill to the floor for a vote until a clean vote against public funding for abortion is allowed," Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Monday in a statement. He said last week that 40 Democrats could vote with him to oppose the legislation -- enough to derail the bill.

To be clear, Stupak and his colleagues are joining with Republicans in trying to prevent the bill from coming to the floor at all if their extreme anti-choice amendment is not allowed. Stupak wants to prohibit abortion coverage completely in the exchange, meaning that if a woman wanted reproductive health coverage that included abortion servcies, she'd have to purchase an additional insurance rider. That would mean that a young woman covered by her parent's plan would have to negotiate with her parents for the coverage. Or a woman in an abusive relationship would have to negotiate that with her partner. Women would have to plan in advance, think ahead to whether any circumstance in their future life might lead them to have an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy and buy that extra insurance, just in case.

It's a backdoor attempt by Stupak and his colleagues to get abortion coverage excluded from private insurance, as well as public--which has been in place since 1976 with the Hyde Amendment, a rider that has been attached to appropriations bills for the past 33 years. The proposed House bill already goes much further in restricting access to abortion services than pro-choice advocates like, and in many ways marks a significant step back for choice. One of the primary issues is that it would codify the Hyde Amendment, making it permanent law.

But the Stupak amendment is much worse. He says he as some 40 Members with him to vote no on letting the bill onto the floor without banning abortion. It's not clear that he actually does have 40. We know of these 29 who are with him. Incidentally, 28 of them are men. Shocking, I know.

• Jason Altmire
• John Barrow
• Dan Boren
• Bobby Bright
• Chris Carney
• Travis Childers
• Jerry Costello
• Kathy Dahlkemper
• Artur Davis
• Lincoln Davis
• Steve Driehaus
• Parker Griffith
• Tim Holden
• Dale Kildee
• Frank Kratovil
• Dan Lipinski
• Jim Marshall
• Jim Matheson
• Mike McIntyre
• Charlie Melancon
• Michael McMahon
• Alan Mollohan
• Jim Oberstar
• Collin Peterson
• Nick Rahall
• Mike Ross
• Heath Shuler
• John Tanner
• Gene Taylor

As Chris says, this makes just 30 members along with Stupak, not enough to stop the bill from coming to the floor unless he can find nine more. He says he has 40 some, so it's possible. So if you happen to recognize any of those above names as being your Representative, give them a call and let them know that you don't appreciate they're working with Republicans to attempt to derail this reform.

Tagged as: anti-choice, abortion rights, bart stupak, abotion, stupak