Obama Opposes Pro-life Efforts in Healthcare Reform

President Obama and abortion advocates in the Senate plan to remove pro-life language in the healthcare reform bill that passed the House on November 7. Their guns are aimed at the Stupak Amendment, a measure that ensures taxpayers' money will not fund abortions.

The amendment prohibits insurance plans in the socialized exchange set up by Obamacare from covering abortion. Advocates of the amendment say it merely maintains the status quo begun by the Hyde Amendment, a rider renewed annually since 1976 as part of a federal spending bill. The Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion. Opponents claim the Stupak Amendment goes farther than that, limiting women's "reproductive choices" by forcing individuals enrolled in the government plan to purchase separate out-of-pocket abortion coverage.

White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod says Obama opposes the Stupak Amendment for this reason. "The president has said repeatedly... that he doesn't believe that this bill should change the status quo as it relates to the issue of abortion," said Axelrod in a CNN interview early this week. "He's going to work with the Senate and the House to try to ensure that at the end of the day the status quo is not changed."

In an interview with ABC News, Obama indicated he wants to preserve the spirit of the Hyde Amendment without limiting women's insurance choices, commenting that "we're not looking to change what is a core principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."