Abortion complicates Senate healthcare debate

By Donna Smith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fight over abortion could complicate Senate action on a sweeping U.S. healthcare reform bill as some moderate Democrats on Monday voiced support for a strict ban on using federal funds to pay for the procedure.

Senator Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat, said he supports abortion language similar to a bill passed by the House of Representatives and would oppose any Senate bill that did not clearly ban the use of federal money for abortions.

"If it doesn't make it clear that it does not pay for abortion then I wouldn't support it," Nelson, who has voiced a number of concerns about the proposed healthcare overhaul, told reporters.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is struggling to muster the 60 votes needed to advance healthcare reform in the 100-member chamber and he cannot afford to lose any Democrats over the abortion issue.

"It's an additional complication," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, whose panel shaped the Senate bill. "We'll work it out. We have to get healthcare passed this year and we will."

The House included in its healthcare bill a measure that bars anyone receiving federal subsidies from buying a health policy that covers abortion. A proposed government-run insurance plan, known as the public option, also would be barred from covering abortion.

The healthcare overhaul, a top domestic priority for President Barack Obama, would bring the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system since the creation of the Medicare government health program for the elderly in 1965.

Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, a moderate who backed an abortion provision similar to the House plan during Senate Finance Committee debate on the issue, said "it's very very hard" to work out abortion language.