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Rep Bart Gordon (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) enabled the Democrats to snatch a pro-life defeat from the jaws of victory. From Fox News:
The amendment said health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases. It was approved in the Energy and Commerce Committee after conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it.
But committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., invoked House rules that allowed him to bring up the amendment for a second vote, despite Republican objections.
This time, one conservative Democrat -- Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee -- changed his vote from "yes" to "no." And a second conservative Democrat who hadn't voted the first time -- Rep. Zack Space of Ohio -- voted "no."
It was enough to take down the amendment on a 30-29 vote.
This action occurred despite the letter from Cardinal Rigali urging the lawmakers to approve an amendment prohibiting the federal funding of abortion:
Because some federal funds are authorized and appropriated by this legislation
without passing through the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, they are not covered by the
Hyde amendment and other provisions that have prevented direct federal funding of
abortion for over three decades. The legislation needs its own provision against abortion funding to ensure consistency with the policy in all other federal health programs.
Representative Gordon's staffer explanation of vote change
USCCB position on Health Care Reform
Comments
Fox got it wrong. The Pitts amendment was reconsidered because a majority of the committee voted to reconsider the amendment. The vote to reconsider was 35 members voting in favor of reconsideration and 24 members voting against reconsideration. That's not at all the same as saying that the reconsideration took place because of something that Henry Waxman did.
energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090730/hr3200_pitts_1_reconsider.pdf
Actually, it was Waxman who asked for the reconsideration. If he had not done so, the vote would have stood. The 35-24 was the vote for reconsideration after Waxman asked for it. The vote on the reconsidered amendment was 30-29 against the amendment.
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