This morning we’re still seeing reactions from voters on how their politicians chose to vote on Stupak Amendment. On Wednesday the city council of Berkeley, Calif. voted to send wire coat hangers –one gruesome symbol of the means of self-induced abortion women were forced to resort to when safe and legal abortions were illegal in the United States – to those “pro-choice” members of Congress who voted in favor of the Stupak Amendment.

Meanwhile Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says his Senate colleague Ben Nelson’s position on abortion is inconsistent. Nelson has threatened to vote against the final health care reform bill if he doesn’t get his way on the issue of whether health insurance providers on the new exchanges will cover abortion services.

“We have had a consistent policy of no federal funding for abortions, we’ve all lived with that for many years,” Harkin says. “I think we have a basic understanding in this country of where we are on that issue. To the extent that Senator Nelson wants to change that, he’s out of the mainstream.”

Harkin says “we’ve been up and down that issue” plenty of times. Today is the 11th consecutive day of floor debate on the health care reform plan. Harkin is among a group of key Senate Democrats who are working on a compromise version of the plan. Harkin says he hopes Nelson joins the rest of the party in backing the massive piece of legislation.

“Whether or not he’s going to support the bill in its final form or not, I just don’t know,” Harkin says. “I don’t know what he said this morning. I’ve heard a lot of different things said by the senator from Nebraska. He’s been all over the map on this and he was one of the ten in the room with us forging this compromise so I’ll just say, well, we’ll see what happens when it happens.”

A Maryland woman who, after discovering seven and a half months into her pregnancy that her fetus had severe brain abnormalities, had to travel to Florida to obtain an abortion, thanked senators Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski for voting against the Nelson-Hatch-CaseyAmendment.

As I listen to the debate regarding abortion coverage in the proposed health care system, I can’t help but ask: What about circumstances like mine? How can families – especially federal employees – facing such a terrible prognosis be omitted from insurance coverage for abortion? The majority of private health insurance plans cover abortion; however, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program prohibits coverage of abortion except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. This policy forces federal employees and their dependents in my situation to pay out of pocket for abortion care.

Bonus item: Travis County in Texas, the board of Central Health unanimously approved contracts to continue providing abortions for low-income women.