Washington D.C., Mar 16, 2010 / 22:51 pm
In a 19-17 vote on Monday night, the House Budget Committee shot down the inclusion of the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the health care reconciliation bill. The amendment, which was drafted by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) last November, would prevent the use of federal funds for abortion and is likely to be addressed by the full House later this week.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) charged on Monday night that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who was not present at the debate, and others who take issue with the Senate bill have “willfully continued to repeat falsehoods about” the Senate legislation's provision of federally funded abortion, according to CNSNews.com.
“Holding up this bill to play politics on the abortion issue is emphatically not a pro-life stance,” said Rep. DeLauro, who claims the Senate bill does not fund abortions.
The health care reconciliation bill is intended to amend the full health care bill which was passed in the Senate last December. Monday's Budget Committee vote rejecting the Stupak Amendment, acts as a non-binding recommendation to the full House, which is expected to approve a final version of the reconciliation bill in the next several days.