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The bipartisan abortion amendment passed during Saturday's health care debate was co-sponsored by Rep. Joseph Pitts.
A Republican who represents Lancaster County and parts of Chester and Berks counties, Pitts teamed with Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, of Michigan, to draft the amendment months ago, in the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The proposal was approved 240-194. Sixty-four Democrats joined 176 Republicans in voting for the Stupak-Pitts amendment, which would bar the new government insurance plan from covering abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. The Democrats' original health care bill would have allowed the government plan to cover abortions.
Despite the amendment's passage, Pitts voted no on the health care overhaul that later passed. He instead supported the Republicans' alternative, which went down to defeat.
According to The Associated Press, the Stupak-Pitts amendment also would prohibit people who receive new federal health subsidies from using them to buy insurance plans that include abortion coverage. The original bill would have allowed people receiving such subsidies to pay for abortion coverage with their own money, a provision that abortion opponents labeled an accounting gimmick.
Under the Stupak-Pitts amendment, people who do not receive federal insurance subsidies could buy private insurance plans that include abortion coverage. People who receive federal subsidies could buy separate policies covering abortions if they use their own money to do it.
Also under the amendment, companies selling health insurance policies that cover abortions would be required to offer identical policies without that coverage.
A health care overhaul bill in the Senate bans federal abortion funding, but the language is less strict.
In a brief phone interview Saturday afternoon before the vote, Pitts said the goal of the amendment was to maintain current law, which bans federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is at risk.
Pitts also stressed the amendment's bipartisan roots.
He and Stupak are members of the Pro-Life Caucus in the House, and Stupak is a co-chairman of the caucus.
Both serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee. The amendment voted on Saturday was one of four abortion-related amendments that he and Stupak drafted when health care reform was in that committee, Pitts said.
The proposal later acquired four other co-sponsors: Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind.; Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Pa.; Christopher Smith, R-N.J.; and Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.
Getting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow a vote on the amendment "definitely was a big victory," said Pitts' press secretary, Andrew Wimer.
Previously, Pelosi had indicated she was only going to permit the Republican health care bill to come to a vote and not the abortion amendment, he said.
The agreement to bring the Stupak-Pitts amendment to the floor was reached midnight Friday after hours of negotiations brokered by Pelosi. Stupak, Ellsworth and other abortion opponents won the last-minute concession despite strong opposition from abortion rights supporters who were the major force behind the overall health care bill.
Diane DeGette, D-Colo., who co-chairs the Pro-Choice Caucus, told The Associated Press that the Stupak-Pitts amendment was "the biggest restriction on a woman's right to choose that's been considered on the floor of the House" in her 13 years in Congress.
Paula Wolf is a staff writer for the Sunday News. She can be reached by e-mail at pwolf@lnpnews.com.
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