TPM’s Brian Beutler reports on Sen. Ben Nelson’s statement to reporters today on what he’d do if the Senate does not approve his anti-abortion funding amendment, which mirrors the amendment offered by Bart Stupak in the House:
Nelson was the lone Democrat to vote with all 40 Republicans in favor of the Murkowski amendment that “would have banned the government from using guidelines from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to deny coverage. It would have applied to private insurers and government insurance plans.” It would have also prevented the government from defining abortion as a preventive service that insurers must cover. The Senate did pass the Mikulski amendment that mandates that insurers cover mammograms and other “preventive care” without co-pays; it leaves open whether abortion would be defined as preventive care.
