I have long believed that the contentious issue of abortion funding could scuttle Obamacare. Proponents know that too, of course, and have played a game of hide the ball to pretend that abortion won’t be funded.

They deny the subterfuge.  But there is a way to be sure; simply explicitly outlaw government funding for abortion in the bill so that the bureaucrats can’t slip it in at the midnight hour after the bill is passed. Tellingly, all such attempts have been rejected. Indeed, the Capps Amendment in the House provides that the bureaucrats can decide to cover abortion under the public option, the funding for which would not be prohibited (pro lifers contend), by the  Hyde Amendment. The White House has now officially disagreed.

Pro life Democrats in the House have responded with a “put up or shut up” move, threatening to keep the House from voting on the bill unless an anti abortion funding amendment is voted on first. From the story:

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.), co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, told CNSNews.com that Democrats who oppose government funding of abortion will try to block the health care reform bill from coming to a vote on the House floor unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) allows a floor vote on an amendment to explicitly prohibit abortion funding in the bill…

What Stupak wants to do is attach the language of the Hyde Amendment to the health-care bill itself so that abortion funding is permanently and explicitly barred in the federally funded health insurance plans. “There are many of us Democrats in the House who are philosophically, legally, and morally opposed to public funding for abortions,” Stupak told CNSNews.com in a statement. “We want the chance to offer our amendment, the Hyde Amendment, on the floor of the House.”

“If our amendment is not made in order we will try to shut down the rule, preventing the health care bill from coming to the floor for a vote,” Stupack stated. “If the Speaker believes that abortion funding is not in the bill then she should let me have my amendment, because if anything it would just be redundant.”

Exactly right, there would be absolutely no harm…unless Obamacare pushers want abortion funding.  Indeed, the refusal to explicitly outlaw such funding–along with health care rationing and outcome directed end of life counseling in the bill–proves my contention that the politicians want unaccountable bureaucrats to do their dirty work.