US Senate rejects Democratic abortion amendment

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Senate Democrats, saying they are seeking common ground in the nation’s divisive abortion debate, offered a pregnancy prevention measure in the Senate Thursday night but it was defeated.

The Senate voted 53-47 on mostly party lines on the measure offered by New York Democrat Hillary Clinton and the Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

Since losing House and Senate seats and watching President Bush’s re-election in November, some Democrats have sought to project a more centrist message on “moral values” issues.

The new party chief Howard Dean has made a point of welcoming anti-abortion rights Democrats to the party.

Reid personally opposes abortion rights but heads a Democratic caucus that largely favors them. Clinton has been pressing her message that abortions should be legal but rare.

“It is part of our effort to find common ground,” Clinton said of the bill, noting that about half of the six million U.S. pregnancies each year are unplanned and about 1.3 million end in abortion.

The measure, offered as an amendment in the Senate budget debate, included more funding for family planning, teen pregnancy programs and education about emergency contraception. It also would have expanded health insurance coverage of prescription birth control.

New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg, chairman of the Budget Committee, argued against the measure, saying it would block funding to abstinence-only sex education programs.

Gregg said requiring more insurance coverage of contraceptives “would increase the cost of insurance and create more uninsured individuals in this country today.”

Abortion advocacy groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood backed the measure, and called on senators who oppose abortion to support it to reduce the number of abortions.

The National Right to Life Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Nancy Keenan, NARAL president, said in a recent telephone interview that she doesn’t detect a major shift in the Democratic party—and she says her group wholeheartedly supports the emphasis on prevention.

“Democrats are not running away from the issue, and they don’t need to change their position. The majority of Americans are pro-choice,” she said. 

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