Former President Bill Clinton walks with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. He met with Democratic Senate leaders to urge passage of health-care reform.

AP / Harry Hamburg

WASHINGTON — As former President Bill Clinton warned Senate Democrats of the political dangers of failing to pass an overhaul of the health-care system, party leaders set a goal of starting debate on a Senate bill next week and struggled to close rifts over abortion and other contentious issues.

Asked at a news conference whether it was realistic to expect the Senate health-care debate to begin before Thanksgiving, with Senate passage of the legislation by Christmas, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada replied, “Yes and yes.”

But Reid’s top deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, warned that Democratic leaders won’t schedule a vote to begin the debate until they are sure that they have the 60-vote majority needed to proceed on Senate actions. Party leaders also indicated that, even with a Senate vote by year’s end, the negotiation over differences with the House health-care bill — narrowly passed on Saturday — could drag into 2010.

Following a major victory for antiabortion forces in the House last weekend, it was evident Tuesday that the issue remains a potential stumbling block in the Senate — where every Democrat’s vote may be needed to push through the health-care overhaul. Sen. Ben Nelson, an antiabortion Democrat from Nebraska, reiterated that he will not support a bill without something close to the ban on federal abortion subsidies that the House adopted Saturday.

On the other side, abortion-rights supporters have expressed outrage at the last-minute decision by House Democratic leaders to permit a vote on the strong prohibition on the use of taxpayer money for abortions. Some abortion-rights leaders have said that they cannot accept a final bill containing abortion language like the House bill’s.

Shortly before Clinton met with Senate Democrats over lunch, Reid voiced optimism about a compromise on abortion. “We’re going to continue to work with pro-choice folks and pro-life folks in the Senate and come up with something that’s fair and reasonable,” he said.

Sen. Jack Reed, a strong supporter of abortion rights, declined to say Tuesday whether he would support a Senate health-care overhaul that includes a clear-cut ban on abortion subsidies. During a key Senate health committee’s drafting of the medical overhaul last summer, Reed and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, another Rhode Island Democrat who backs abortion rights, voted against a Republican measure to ban abortion subsidies in the new system.

In an interview, Reed would not spell out why he opposed that amendment, except to say that he expected an acceptable compromise to emerge later. Similarly, Reed said he hopes for a compromise between abortion foes and abortion-rights backers in the current health-care debate, but he avoided specifics.

Reed was asked whether, as a Roman Catholic, he believes that abortion is wrong. “Yes, I do,” said Reed, who seemed uncomfortable discussing the issue. Asked why he believed that, he replied, “I just do.” Reed said he has an intellectual and moral basis for his view but he declined to elaborate.

Reed also avoided a direct reply to Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin’s recent assertion that Catholic legislators who persistently go against church teaching on such issues as abortion “really have to question their membership in the church.”

Reed was asked whether he believes that Bishop Tobin’s pointed commentary about the duties of Catholic legislators has crossed any lines of propriety in the heated debate over abortion and health care. “No,” said Reed. The senator added that Bishop Tobin “is an important voice but he is not the only voice.”

The House ban on federal abortion subsidies in the new health-care system passed on a 240-to-194 vote. A large majority of Democrats — including Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy — opposed the measure.

Rep. James R. Langevin, a fellow Rhode Island Democrat who generally opposes abortion, had long expressed support for a milder compromise on abortion subsidies, out of fear that a strong provision might endanger the overall health-care bill by alienating backers of abortion rights. Langevin occupies a unique position in the emotional debate on abortion, having stated often that he came to understand the preciousness of human life after he was paralyzed in a handgun accident.

When Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Minn., and other antiabortion Democrats prevailed in their demand for a vote on a clear-cut ban on abortion subsidies Saturday, Langevin joined in supporting it — clearing the way for the much closer vote — 220 to 215 — to pass the medical overhaul.

Langevin and Kennedy both gave hints Tuesday that they would not oppose a final bill that contains a strong abortion subsidy ban akin to Stupak’s provision. As Kennedy put it, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

With reports from

Karen Lee Ziner

jmulligan@belo-dc.com