Washington D.C., Mar 5, 2010 / 18:10 pm
An official with the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference has said that the bishops would work to secure a “key vote” for the progress of the Senate health care reform bill if an acceptable agreement on abortion funding restrictions is reached with House leaders.
Richard Doerflinger, the associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, told Politico that the USCCB would strongly urge Democrats and Republicans to vote to waive the point of order blocking a next Senate vote.
“Whether it would be enough to get to 60 votes, I can’t predict. We would certainly try,” Doerflinger commented.
The USCCB supported the amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), which added strong restrictions on the funding of abortion to the House health care legislation, in keeping with the Hyde Amendment.