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How Pelosi Made Health Care Happen

TRADE-OFF

House Speaker jettisoned abortion rights to get votes.

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Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

It took a shouting match and tears to get the health-care bill through the House, according to some present, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi emerged victorious for her efforts in getting the needed votes. Though known for her liberal activism and support of reproductive rights, Pelosi also proved to be a ruthless numbers cruncher. Late Friday, Pelosi announced that she would concede limiting insurance coverage for abortion, an issue that had caused a stalemate among members of the House. The move may have alienated Pelosi's closest allies in the House, for whom abortion rights are tantamount, but in the end it was a strategy that worked. One representative told another that there are “more pro-life votes in the House than pro-choice and that abortion-rights advocates had better acknowledge that reality."

Read it at Politico