A bipartisan effort is underway in the Senate to ensure that the government health insurance programs created by the healthcare bill would not be permitted to cover abortions.

Pro-life groups have been warning that the healthcare bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and backed by President Obama would put the federal government in the business of subsidizing abortions in an unprecedented way.

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson (NE) and Republican Orrin Hatch (UT) plan to advance an amendment that would prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to subsidize abortions under the so-called "public option." The Hatch-Nelson amendment, which is nearly identical to the Stupak language approved in the House, will likely be voted on next week...