Early last month, president Barrack Obama recorded his first major victory as far as pursuing the outlined policies during the presidential campaign is concerned.  The House of Representative passed the health care bill with a slight margin win to the Democrats. The issue of health care has dominated the national agenda since the beginning of the year with opinion over whether it is the solution to the nation’s health problems being sharply divided. An analysis of the prevailing sentiments on the issue indicates it is highly divisive with a number of provisions that need to be streamlined. One issue however standing out from the controversy and pitting conservatives against the liberals is whether the proposed health care bill should used to finance abortions.

Presidents Barrack Obama and the house speaker Nancy Pelosi have been boxed to a corner and forced to give in to the demands to prohibit the health care bill from financing abortions. Other groups have likewise voiced their concerns either in support for or against federal funds financing abortion. The scene playing out is the characteristic of American politics where every issue degenerates into a protracted battle between the conservatives and the liberals.  Abortion has remained a controversial issue for more than half a century now dividing the prolife groups, that maintain that abortion is a form of murder and should be outlawed, on one hand and the prochoice who see it as a matter of ones conscience which the government should play no role in. Although the controversy slightly fizzled out during the Roe v Wade court case which concluded that abortion was a constitutional right, the issue rears its ugly head once in a while. The debate is set to continue as long as the health care bill remains a core national agenda (Janice, 2009).

The controversy was brewed by the conservative wing of prolife democrats led by Bart Stupak who sought to introduce what is now referred to as the Stupak amendment. This amendment had a purpose of categorically seeing to it that federal funds do not cater for abortion.  Earlier, before the introduction of the amendment, there were reports of a protracted battle between Nancy Pelosi who is herself a vowed prolife activist against conservative members of the Democratic Party.  To salvage the passage of the bill that was now being threatened by her own party members, Pelosi had to concede to their demands and allow the Stupak amendment to be introduced. The amendment sailed through the house drawing a cross-party support and garnering more votes than the health bill. This was amidst the opposition from the prochoice representatives who like Rosa DeLauro maintained that although abortion was a personal choice, “this amendment takes away that same freedom of conscience from America’s women. It prohibits them from access to an abortion even if they pay it with their own money. It invades women’s personal decisions.” (Quoted in David & Jackie 2009). This statement is an indicator of the deep-seated sentiments that threaten to scuttle the health care bill. Conservatives have maintained that the bill will be rejected should the amendment be annulled. The Catholic Church through its bishops has voiced its opinion emphasizing on the need by legislators to ensure that women wishing to carry out abortion do not benefit from federal funding (FOXNews.com)

Indeed differences between the liberals and conservatives have played out in the America’s politics for long. These are two groups that never seem to reach an agreement on any single issue. They have both come out with blaring guns over the health care bill and the issue of abortion being financed by the federal funds.  The conservatives have won the first round of the battle through the Stupak amendment.  However, as time goes by and the bill is brought to the floor of the senate, it remains interesting to see how these differences will be ironed out.

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