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Obama: "This Is a Health Care Bill, Not an Abortion Bill"

by Jake Tapper, Karen Travers and Devin Dwyer, ABC News
Monday 09 November 2009

President Says Still More Work to be Done on Legislation Passed by House

President Obama said today that Congress needs to change abortion-related language in the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives this weekend that includes tougher restrictions on abortion funding but said there is more work to be done before a final piece of legislation gets to his desk.

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions.

Saying the bill cannot change the status quo, the President said "there are strong feelings on both sides" about an amendment passed on Saturday and added to the legislation, "and what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo."

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Whoa Nellie! Did the author

 Tue, 11/10/2009 - 07:51 — Anonymous (not verified)
Whoa Nellie! Did the author of the article in fact state that Obama stated that the health care bill "could not change the status quo"? I believe that's what the author in fact averred. So there's to be no changes, eh?

The tortured mess that is

 Tue, 11/10/2009 - 08:07 — Anonymous (not verified)
The tortured mess that is healthcare reform shows clearly that our political system is breaking. We need reform, but we don't need this bill. Nor any other that our politicians are currently capable of writing. They are all too obsessed with political stances, party lines, campaign money, and specials interests