LEWISTON — Members of Maine's congressional delegation agree that health care reform legislation should not include federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is threatened — maintaining what has been the status quo for more than 30 years.

But members disagree on whether the House bill, which includes an amendment sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, would go further than current policy and affect women's ability to obtain private-market health insurance that includes abortion coverage.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, voted against the amendment on the House floor; Maine's other U.S. representative, Democrat Mike Michaud, voted for it.

Maine's pair of pro-choice Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have indicated that they are opposed to the amendment.

How much impact the amendment would have is unclear.

The House bill, like its Senate counterpart, would establish insurance exchanges through which individuals could  obtain private health insurance as part of a larger pool. The exchanges ideally would result in lower-costing plans than people could negotiate on their own.

These exchanges would be open to people buying insurance with their own money and to those who are buying insurance with the help of federal subsidies or tax credits. The Stupak amendment would restrict women using federal subsidies or tax credits from buying a plan that offered abortion coverage. Women would be allowed to use their own money to buy supplemental abortion coverage.

Supporters of the Stupak amendment say it merely maintains the status quo, while opponents say it may result in private insurers dropping plans that offer abortion coverage from the exchanges, even to women paying with their own money.

"The underlying bill excluded the federal funding of abortion," said Ed Gilman, a spokesman for Michaud. "The amendment further clarified that restriction, which is consistent with current law. (Michaud) recognizes that there are concerns about unintended consequences and believes that they should be addressed moving forward."

Though Michaud has been described in the past as "pro-life," Gilman said the congressman doesn't accept "pro-choice" or "pro-life" labels. Michaud has been consistent in his support of funding for family planning and preventing unwanted pregnancies, while opposing funding for abortions, Gilman said.

The amendment was offered after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brokered a deal with conservative Democrats to secure their votes for final passage on the bill Saturday night.

"I do think it's safe to say this is going to make it most difficult for low-income and middle-class women to procure an abortion," said Pingree, who is pro-choice.

Pingree serves on the House Rules Committee, which must approve amendments before they are brought up on the floor. She and two other female Democrats serving on the committee staged a mini-protest of the amendment.

"We boycotted the vote in committee to show our displeasure with the abortion provision," Pingree said. "Honestly, it was just a way to say, in a sense, this turns our stomachs; this shouldn't be happening. But if it had needed our votes to move the bill to the floor, we would have been there to do that."

Pingree said Pelosi felt the measure was necessary to move the overall health care reform bill forward, which is why Pingree would have supported it out of committee, even though she, like Pelosi, opposes it in principle.

"What people are frustrated about with this language now is that it gets much more into having a say over your private insurance plans. At least, that's how some of us see it," Pingree said.

She said she wasn't sure how effective the abortion rider option would be.

"Most people don't anticipate an abortion, so it's not like you would purchase a rider thinking, oh, maybe I'll need an abortion someday," she said.

Sen. Snowe had expressed those same concerns during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Sept. 30, when a similar amendment was offered and defeated.

"The true intent (of the legislation is) to maintain current law and not create any unintended consequences or any other changes in current policy," said Snowe, who was the only Republican to vote against the amendment. "Requiring a supplemental policy would mean that someone would have to assume they're undergoing an abortion."

Snowe said insurance companies have been able to differentiate between federal funding and other sources of funding, such as state subsidies or private payments, to comply with the current law concerning abortion coverage.

"In 17 states, they have gone beyond the restrictions of (the federal law) and (insurers) have set up separate funding or coding," she said. "And in international family planning programs, we require separation of funding as well, so that we won't have any co-mingling of funds."

Maine is not one of the states that uses state funding to pay for abortions.

Sen. Collins said she thinks Snowe's committee sufficiently addressed the issue by putting up a "firewall" that prevents federal funds from being used to pay for abortions.

According to her spokesman, Collins is concerned that the House-passed amendment is "so broad that it would cause women to lose private coverage benefits, even if they are purchasing health insurance with their own money."

rmetzler@sunjournal.com