By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

The U.S. Bishops have signaled that if abortion funding is satisfactorily removed from health care reform, they will back Democratic leadership in support of passing the bill, even if that means using the controversial reconciliation process to do so.

Politico is reporting that Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told them: “If the Stupak amendment or something equivalent to it were in the reconciliation package on the Senate floor and it was necessary to get 60 votes to waive the point of order, we would strongly urge everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to waive the point of order.”

To “waive the point of order” means that a Senate super-majority (60 votes) moves to allow a provision to remain in a reconciliation bill even though it violates rules prohibiting the inclusion of non-budget-related items.

But if this provision includes a Stupak-like amendment, “we would strongly urge everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to waive the point of order,” Doerflinger told Politico. “Whether it would be enough to get to 60 votes, I can’t predict. We would certainly try.”

The bishops conference played a key role in November in helping Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), author of the amendment that stripped abortion coverage from the House version of health care reform, get his amendment to the floor where it passed handily.

However, the Senate bill, which is the centerpiece of the legislation currently being debated on the Hill, includes an abortion provision that is less strict and not satisfactory to the bishops and the nation’s pro-life leaders. A revision could be crafted, but to survive the Senate, all non-budget related revisions would need 60 votes to overcome points of order under reconciliation procedure rules.

Abortion remains a sticking point. Rep. Stupak’s group of pro-life lawmakers may be enough to prevent passage of the bill unless something is done to strip the abortion funding out of the legislation.

However, if this is accomplished to everyone’s satisfaction, the U.S. bishops could become a powerful ally of Speaker Pelose and President Barack Obama as they make one last attempt to push through health care reform.

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