Health Care And Abortion: Democratic Party Fault Lines

Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the House version of health-care overhaul that passed on Saturday. Had three more Dems joined that group, the measure would have gone down to defeat.

The House vote, as David Herszenhorn wrote in today's New York Times, "was supposed to be the easy part." Democrats, after all, have a commanding 258-177 majority.

Well, there was nothing easy in the final vote, which was 220 to 215. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, needing every vote she could get, threw a bone -- a big bone -- at pro-life Democrats to get them on board: a vote on the "Stupak Amendment." Rep. Bart Stupak, an anti-abortion Democrat from Michigan, offered an amendment that would ban any funding of abortions under the new health plan except in cases of rape, incest or where the mother's life is endangered.

But if allowing the vote pleased the pro-life Dems, it infuriated the party's pro-choice wing, which is far more sizable.

The Stupak amendment passed on Saturday by a vote of 240-194. Sixty-four Democrats voted for it, along with 176 of 177 Republicans (John Shadegg of Arizona voted present).

Here's a list of the 64 Dems who voted for Stupak and how they voted on final passage of the health-care bill:

Ala.: Bright (N), Davis (N), Griffith (N).
Ark.: Berry (Y), Ross (N), Snyder (Y).
Calif.: Baca (Y), Cardoza (Y), Costa (Y),
Colo.: Salazar (Y).
Ga.: Barrow (N), Bishop (Y), Marshall (N).
Ill.: Costello (Y), Lipinski (Y).
Ind.: Donnelly (Y), Ellsworth (Y), Hill (Y).
Ky.: Chandler (N).
La.: Melancon (N).
Me.: Michaud (Y).
Mass.: Lynch (Y), Neal (Y).
Mich.: Kildee (Y), Stupak (Y).
Minn.: Oberstar (Y), Peterson (N).
Miss.: Childers (N), Taylor (N).
Mo.: Skelton (N).
N.M.: Teague (N).
N.C.: Etheridge (Y), McIntyre (N), Shuler (N).
N.D.: Pomeroy (Y).
Ohio: Boccieri (N), Driehaus (Y), Kaptur (Y), Ryan (Y), Space (Y), Wilson (Y).
Okla.: Boren (N).
Pa.: Altmire (N), Carney (Y), Dahlkemper (Y), Doyle (Y), Holden (N), Kanjorski (Y), Murtha (Y).
R.I.: Langevin (Y).
S.C.: Spratt (Y).
Tenn.: Cooper (Y), Davis (N), Gordon (N), Tanner (N).
Texas: Cuellar (Y), Ortiz (Y), Reyes (Y), Rodriguez (Y).
Utah: Matheson (N).
Va.: Perriello (Y).
W.Va.: Mollohan (Y), Rahall (Y).
Wisc.: Obey (Y).

The following Democrats voted against both the Stupak amendment and final passage of the health care bill: Markey (CO), Boyd (FL), Kosmas (FL), Minnick (ID), Kratovil (MD), Adler (NJ), Massa (NY), McMahon (NY), Murphy (NY), Kissell (NC), Kucinich (OH), Herseth Sandlin (SD), Edwards (TX), Boucher (VA), Nye (VA), and Baird (WA). Of these 16, ten are freshmen (indicated in italics).

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) explains his "no" vote here.

The future of Stupak. The Hill's Michael O'Brien writes that some pro-choice Democrats are confident that when all is said and done, after the Senate passes its version and the measure goes to conference, the Stupak amendment will disappear from the final vote. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the Democrats' chief deputy whip, "said that she and other pro-abortion rights lawmakers would work to strip the amendment."

"I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that that language won't be there," Wasserman Schultz said during an appearance on MSNBC. "And I think we're all going to be working very hard, particularly the pro-choice members, to make sure that's the case." ...

The conference between the House and Senate bills after the upper chamber passes its bill will present an opportunity to strip the Stupak amendment, and liberal Democrats have vowed to work hard to get rid of that language during that stage of the legislation. ...

It's not clear how the abortion debate could impact a final vote in the House on the healthcare bill, but it could be difficult for many of the centrists who supported Stupak's amendment to vote for a healthcare bill that did not include his language. ...

But it's also possible liberals could drop their support for the bill if the language is not changed.

Don't look for GOP support for the final version of the bill, with or without Stupak. Just one Republican, freshman Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana, voted for the health-care bill.

The Left Stuff. Liberal and progressive outrage over passage of the Stupak amendment is all over the Web, including at Feministing.com and the Unrepentant Old Hippie blog, among others.

Looking at 2010. The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza writes that there is "clearly serious electoral peril" for several House Democrats who voted yes on final passage, especially those "are either new to Congress or haven't had a serious race in quite a while AND have drawn quality Republican opponents." He lists Reps. Tom Perriello (VA), Vic Snyder (AR) and Zack Space (OH).

Poll. The latest Rasmussen Poll shows 52 percent of Americans opposed to the health-care plan as "proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats," with 45 percent in favor.