So, in order to pacify the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which has been completely captured by the right-wing and hostile to Democrats for something approaching two decades, the House has agreed to a allow an amendment to be voted that would effectively ban all health insurance policies that pay for abortion services:

Under the agreement, anti-abortion Democrats will be permitted to offer an amendment on the House floor to the health-care overhaul bill. The amendment would prohibit a new government-run insurance plan created by the health-care bill from offering to cover abortion services, congressional sources said. It would also block people who received federal subsidies for the purchase of health insurance from buying policies that offered coverage for abortions.

No doubt about this: by excluding these plans, it will cause their extinction, because it effectively bans such plans from the new insurance exchanges.

I think that the House Leadership should have told Bart Stupak (D-Vatican) to go Cheney himself, and perhaps a fuller application of criminal conspiracy laws, against people like, for example, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who actively conspired to conceal child abuse by clergy is in order too.

[update]

That piece of sh$# amendment passes, 240-194, a little bit after 10:00pm.

^*I’m paraphrasing Nixon administration Secretary of Agriculture, and notable bigot, Earl Butz, and yes, I can understand how it’s potentially offensive, but far less offensive than members of the clergy attempting to dictate policy.