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some house Democrats misunderstood its language
Democratic Congressman Diana DeGette supported the bill but threatened to block it because
of the anti-abortion language
Congresswoman, thanks for joining us first of all according to the NYT stormed out of the speaker's office
when you realized what was going down over this weekend in the late night votes
how did this happen
if people such as yourself activist members of the caucus
could have been so blindsided by what the speaker agree to to get those forty votes?
well we really weren't blind-sided whathappened was
a group of anti-choice Democrats said that they would
vote against the rule to bring the bill to the floor if they weren't allowed to have
their amendments
and then what happened was when we when we got together enough votes to pass
the rule
they then said, well we're just going to vote against the bill
so we had to make a terrible choice
of letting this amendment go to the floor and then voting for the final passage of the
bill or killing the health care bill
you know this bill is too important it provides health care to thirty-six million Americans
but on the other hand
this amendment goes far far beyond current restrictions on abortion
right now the current law says
no federal money shall be used for abortions
and that language was included in the base bill
what this amendment said is
women in the exchange including middle-class women
trying to go into the public option with their own money now cannot get abortions covered
as part of their insurance
Congressmanwhat do you have to say to Nancy Pelosi or how disappointed are you with
the
with the house leadership over this
well Nancy Pelosi felt just as badly as I did about this and what what I said to her
and what the you know we have a hundred ninety members of the congressional pro choice caucus
and a
large group of us are saying that if this language is contained in the conference report
then we will not vote for the conference report
and so it needs to be stripped out in the conference
what about on the senate floor?
do you think it's going to be included in the senate version
well it hasn't been included in either of the committee versions in
the senate
in one hour on Saturday night
we got forty people to sign a letter to speaker Pelosi
telling her we will not vote for a conference report that contains this Draconian language
and
frankly the women of America should be furious because
this doesn't just say no federal funding for abortion
this says women cannot use their own money
to buy an insurance policy that would include a legal medical procedure
I was told that
you've requested a meeting with the President have you heard anything back to the White
House
I spoke with Rahm Emmanuel on Friday when the President was over at the house and I told
him we wanted to meet with the President as soon as we get back next week
and we have a number of members who have signed a letter to the President asking for a meeting
Rahm said that he that he would make that happen and I expect will be going over
to the White House next week and we're going to tell the President the same thing with
telling the speaker
is look we're willing to compromise
we're willing to say no federal funds can be used for abortion that's the Hyde amendment
that's been the law of the land
for a long time
but we're not
we're not getting say that women can't have full access to a full range of reproductive
services
as the devil's bargain to pass this legislation
Diana DeGette, Congresswoman from Colorado thank you very much indeed for joining us