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The Democrats are attempting one final time to pass their healthcare legislation, this time by eventually utilizing a parliamentary procedure in the Senate known as reconciliation, whereby they hope to avoid the Republicans’ new 41 vote filibuster.

But before the Democrats can get legislation back to the Senate, the House (it is believed) must pass the Senate healthcare language verbatim. This task is proving difficult because Rep. Bart Stupak and his coalition of pro-life Democrats are refusing to vote for the Senate bill which funds abortions.

Pundits continue to claim that this is a fight between Democrats and Republicans. It isn’t. This is a fight between Democrats and other Democrats within their own caucus, a fight between Democrats and the majority of Americans, and a fight between the Democrat leadership and the US Bishops.

How did we get here? The Democrat leadership burned the bishops and pro-life interests. Badly. From day one they attempted to sneak abortion funding into the bill, and they continually shot down every attempt to remove it, either from within their own caucus or when it was offered by Republicans.

But it turns out the Democrat leadership needs the bishops and pro-lifers to pass this bill. The Democrats were only able to pass their legislation through the House the first time after they had given the pro-life Democrats the concession of inserting Stupak’s pro-life language. In the Senate, however, they did manage to go it alone without the bishops and pro-lifers by voting down the pro-life language offered there.

Now they are back to needing the bishops and pro-lifers, because they have not figured out a way to overcome Stupak’s pro-life Democrat caucus in the House.

All of this backstory and context is prelude to this point: when it comes to abortion funding, the cat is out of the bag, and the Democrat leadership is responsible for this sorry state of affairs. If they refuse to start over, the only health-care bill that can be passed at this point is a pro-abortion bill.

If healthcare fails to pass as currently written, the onus for this “failed” attempt at health-care reform is not on the bishops, the pro-lifers, or the Republicans. Remember the Democrats started this debate with a huge majority in the House, a supermajority in the Senate, public support, and Barack Obama fresh from his historic campaign. This failure comes from the ideological attachment of Democrats to publicly-funded abortions, and their monetary attachment to pro-abortion interest groups.

To this day, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama refuse to admit that their legislation results in abortion funding, even as national awareness has gradually grasped that it is precisely this issue which is holding up final passage. This is ideologically-inspired blindness, as can only afflict those who wield great power.

Having blown past opportunities to sacrifice their abortion dollars for stronger support in Congress, the Democrat leadership has blown their chance for pro-lifers to trust them. Make no mistake: any mention of reconciliation, “side-car” legislation, etc. is only an attempt to co-opt pro-life support. The Democrat leadership, on this issue, believes in compromise: they believe pro-lifers ought to compromise their principles.

Because of the legislative process, the only way Democrats can assembled their tattered legislation and make it “pro-life” by inserting Hyde language is to assemble a bipartisan vote in the Senate, and have President Obama sign that side-car legislation into law. The Democrats will, however, fail to have a bipartisan vote on such language in the Senate because powerful Democrat senators are too committed to Planned Parenthood, NARAL and EMILY’s List to ever vote yes on a measure that restricts abortion funding.

The Democrats will also fail to win Obama’s signature on such side-car legislation because he won’t need the trust of Republicans once he has a bill on his desk. He can separately sign the healthcare legislation and refuse to sign the pro-life side-car legislation. Since he has already demonstrated a will to sacrifice his own Democrats in Congress over this legislation (dozens of them risk losing their November reelection if they support this bill), he will surely sacrifice the non-support he receives from pro-lifers for the sake of retaining the strong support he receives from pro-abortion interests.

Indeed, because of the corner Democrats and the President have painted themselves into, they cannot give pro-lifers what they have been demanding without admitting to the public that for months, and months, time and time again, they were lying about what this bill really represents when it comes to the interests of the unborn.

A final word: I’m not declaring this legislation dead, by any means. But I’m declaring the possibility of this legislation becoming pro-life before final passage impossible, given the political landscape I have laid out.

The only debate for Catholics at this point, is whether or not they can support a bill which includes this abortion funding. On this matter, the US Bishops, applying the clear social teaching of the Church, have been consistent: Catholics can’t.