Pelosi Discusses Health Care Bill On Seattle Tour

GEORGE TIBBITS

SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that while she opposes an anti-abortion amendment to the House version of the health care bill, it was necessary for the measure to pass.

The California Democrat said the language to prohibit the new government insurance plan from covering abortions "would have been in the bill one way or another." She said backers of the far-reaching legislation to overhaul the U.S. health care system thought it was better to have the language included as an amendment to be voted on than as a provision "that could take down the whole bill."

Pelosi, who spoke at a brief news conference following a tour of Seattle's Swedish Medical Center, said she thinks both sides can eventually find "common ground" on the issue, but they aren't there yet. "So the amendment was necessary in order to give them a chance to vote on that so that we could pass the bill," she said.

The House bill, which passed Saturday on a 220-215 vote, is projected to expand coverage to 36 million uninsured, resulting in 96 percent of the nation's eligible population having insurance.