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United States News Title: Stupak aims to sink 'unacceptable' abortion compromise An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) coordinated opposition to the Senate health bill’s abortion compromise this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO. Stupak, in an interview with POLITICO, called the Senate bill’s abortion position "unacceptable" – but disavowed his staffer’s collaboration with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “I never talked to McConnell about the health care bill,” said Stupak, adding that “I did not authorize the email [which] “was sent without my knowledge.” Stupak said that he has discussed the Senate’s abortion position with Democratic senators Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Robert Casey (Penn.), who both hold conservative views on abortion. Stupak's continued opposition to the Senate plan, despite those conversations and intense pressure from the White House, suggests that reconciling it with the House bill may prove politically challenging. The Senate language represented “a dramatic shift in federal policy,” said Stupak, adding that he remained hopeful that the differences could be resolved in conference. Nelson, though, said earlier Saturday that his support for the legislation was contingent on the abortion compromise remaining in it. The emails suggest a previously unseen degree of coordination between the offices of Stupak and McConnell. Stupak is the leader of a group of pro-life Democrats who say they’ll oppose the sweeping legislation if it uses government money to pay for abortion, while McConnell is firmly committed to killing the legislation. The fact that their offices have made common cause against the Senate's health care compromise will likely further infuriate Stupak’s Democratic colleagues in the House, and demonstrates his willingness to stop any bill that doesn’t pass his test. “Guys - when will we see your letters of opposition to the managers amendment?? We need them ASAP!” wrote Erika Smith, the Stupak aide, at 9:23 this morning, less than an hour after the amendment had become available. The email’s recipients included key staffers for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Right to Life, the Family Research Council, as well as Autumn Fredericks Christensen, aide to top pro-life Republican Chris Smith, and Lanier Swann, a McConnell aide. A minute after Smith sent out her plea, Lanier reiterated it to the list. “Nelson is telling people in the building he will vote yes. If there was any time to weigh in against this deal —- THIS IS IT,” Swann wrote at 9:24 a.m. Response to the bill has been negative from groups on all sides of the abortion divide. Douglas Johnson, an official at the National Right to Life Committee, a group whose staffers were looped on Smith’s email, released a statement Saturday afternoon calling the Senate compromise “light years” away from Stupak's amendment. The president of the Susan B. Anthony List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said the bill “is not ‘compromise’ or ‘middle ground’ – it is a betrayal of conscience for millions of Americans.” “The new abortion language solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill, and it actually creates some new abortion-related problems,” she said. Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, called it “a sad day when women’s health is traded away for one vote,” adding that “there is no policy reason for this action, it is simply a political maneuver.” And the National Organization of Women sent out a release calling the provision “every bit as bad as the infamous House-passed Stupak-Pitts Amendment.” The manager’s amendment, which emerged after hours of negotiations between Nelson and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, stops short of the total ban on health insurance plans that participate in a new exchange system offering abortion coverage. Instead, it includes a provision that allows states to prohibit abortion coverage in the exchanges. The amendment also requires that health plans that provide abortion services separate, for accounting purposes, private premiums and federal funds, and ensure that the federal funds don't pay for abortion services, a maneuver derided in the past by anti-abortion groups as a shell game. The compromise paved the way for a Senate vote on President Obama's top priority, but the frantic emails this morning suggest reconciling the bill with the House’s may remain an obstacle. Stupak said that he was in Northern Michigan, without internet access, when the emails were sent from his office to McConnell’s. Smith “should have let me make up my own mind,” said Stupak. A spokesman for McConnell declined to comment about the staffers’ exchange.
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Report : Stupak working with GOP to kill ObamaCare after Nelson’s sellout
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