If the House agrees to abortion terms, Richard Doerflinger, an associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says clerics will work to move the upper chamber. Bishops offer help with Senate

The Roman Catholic bishops signaled Thursday that if agreement is reached with House leaders on anti-abortion language, the church would work to get the votes needed to protect the provisions in the Senate — and thereby advance the shared goal with Democrats of health care reform.

“We would strongly urge everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to waive the point of order,” Richard Doerflinger, an associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told POLITICO. “Whether it would be enough to get to 60 votes, I can’t predict. We would certainly try.”


“I think it’s something we should explore,” said Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), a longtime opponent of abortion. “It could be something that could carry out the bishops’ objective.”

Absent some agreement, there is the real threat that anti-abortion Democrats will withhold their votes, making it harder, if not impossible, to save health care in the House. The alternate route is a gamble but one that opens the door to what could be a powerful alliance benefiting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama as they try to jump-start the reform effort in the coming weeks.

With a large network of Catholic hospitals and the church’s gospel of social justice, the bishops have long called for expanded health coverage. As Kathy Saile, director of domestic policy for the conference, said last fall, “The bishops see it as a moral imperative and national priority.”

But abortion has been a stubborn dividing point with the two sides fighting over how tight to make the ban on federal funding.

In November, the bishops drove a tough bargain, winning an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) that would severely restrict the ability of even private companies to provide abortion coverage under new state insurance exchanges. That House deal — since weakened by the Senate — is what the bishops want to revive now as part of Obama’s final push on health care. But to survive the Senate, any revisions would need 60 votes to overcome points of order under the expedited reconciliation procedures being contemplated.

Conventional wisdom has held that it will be next to impossible to cut this Gordian knot, since Republicans — with 41 votes — will be determined to disrupt health care reform. But in the November House debate, the bishops moved forcefully to squelch Republican efforts to derail the Stupak amendment; Doerflinger indicated the conference would take the same posture — that this is a vote of conscience.

“If the Stupak amendment or something equivalent to it were in the reconciliation package on the Senate floor and it was necessary to get 60 votes to waive the point of order,” he said, “we would strongly urge everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to waive the point of order.”

“That could be the key vote,” Kildee told POLITICO. “The bishops could say, ‘Are you really with us?’ That’s the key vote.”

Stupak has been warning that he will withhold his vote for health care reform absent some agreement, but in her weekly news conference, Pelosi insisted that there have been no ironclad threats and that she is open to talks.

“When people think there isn’t going to be a bill, they can take whatever position they want,” Pelosi said. “But now they know there is going to be a bill, and these members are saying, let’s talk.”

Kildee agreed, saying he continues to have discussions with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Pelosi’s close ally. “It doesn’t have to be Stupak. ... I would look more at the objective than the language,” he said. “The speaker’s good at counting. Her count will determine how far she may go.”