The White House is claiming bipartisan support of health-care reform. A list of Republicans, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bush administration official Tommy Thompson and others reportedly are turning the tide in favor of the plan.
Don Stewart, communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the Kentucky Republican doubts the legitimacy of the list.
"Everybody that the White House has cited," he said, "has also said that they don't support the bills that are currently before Congress."
Dr. Gene Rudd, associate executive director of the Christian Medical Association, called it another political ploy.
"Sadly, there are people out there who are more interested in their agenda, than they are with the health care of their neighbors," he said. "So, they're putting things like abortion funding, abortion mandates and abortion subsidies into these bills."
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president and chairman of the board of the Susan B. Anthony List, said there is a way for the president to get both Republicans and Democrats onboard.
"If the president really does want a bipartisan effort and really does want to pull together a winning coalition for this legislation," she said, "he has got to say, and then mean — that he will have an explicit exclusion of abortion in the health-care plan."
Rep. Bart Stupak, R-Mich., said he has commitments from 40 Democrats in the House who say that unless they get a chance to vote abortion out of the bill, they will vote against it.
