Pelosi Defends Health Care Bill

Ruby de Luna
11/10/2009

More than a dozen protesters gathered outside Seattle's Swedish Medical Center Monday afternoon. They were protesting the new health care bill, as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and some members of the Washington congressional delegation toured the hospital.

Speaker Pelosi's visit to Seattle is one of her first public appearances since the health care bill's passage, Saturday. The tour of Swedish Medical Center had been planned some time ago, but she used the occasion to highlight and promote the new legislation. Pelosi also defended an amendment that would ban public funding for abortions.

Pelosi: "We have for a long time been trying to find common ground with those who would describe themselves as pro–life, which we describe ourselves as; we couldn't find that common ground yet, so therefore the amendment was necessary in order to give them a chance to vote on that so we could pass the bill."

Pelosi says the bill accomplishes its main goal–to provide health care to uninsured people. As the senate tries to come up with its health care plan, the debate over abortion funding is likely to come up again.

I'm Ruby de Luna, KUOW news.

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