I just spoke with Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, who insisted that the findings of a new George Washington University study confirm many of her suspicions about the Stupak abortion amendment.
“Certainly if it doesn’t confirm my suspicions about the intent, it concerns my suspicions about the effect the Stupak amendment would have,” DeGette said. “What the findings show are that women who want to purchase policies with their own money–with their own premiums–will not be able to buy insurance policies…. That’s frankly the intention of the anti-choice movement now.”
DeGette says she’s spoken in private to many of the pro-life Democrats who voted for the Stupak amendment, some of whom have acknowledged that they didn’t realize what they were voting for.
“I will say that I have spoken privately with several pro-life members about the Stupak amendment, and they acknowledged that the Stupak amendment goes far beyond where they thought it did,” she told me.
For this and other reasons, she believes that everything will be resolved, despite Stupak’s continued insistence that health care reform won’t pass if his amendment is stripped.
“I think this bill still has a long way to go, and I will tell you that by the time the bill gets to the conference report, I think cooler heads will prevail.”
