The Stupak Amendment went down about 8:12 p.m. ET, more Nays than Yays; Rep. Stupak asked for a roll call vote. Watch the vote with us after the Republicans finish their unilateral debate about their own substitute health care bill.

Ah, Republicans. So used to obstruction that they'll obstruct their own priorities.

Here it is. There will be 20 minutes of debate on the Stupak Amendment, and then, I assume, a vote. I'll be updating.

The Stupak amendment would prevent any private health insurance plan from covering elective abortion, if even one of its customer used even one dollar of affordability tax credits. The problem is that the Stupak amendment will conflict directly with other parts of the bill. The bill would require “guaranteed issue.” This means that any insurer offering coverage to individuals on the health insurance exchange most accept all customers.

Today’s book salon focuses on something that I think should get a lot more attention than it does – our psychological well-being as progressive activists. Hillary Rettig’s book, The Lifelong Activist, seeks to help us build activism sustainably into our lives. In order to do so, we’ll need to take better care of ourselves. She starts with an aspiration and a challenge, offering this vision: “Imagine how different the world would be if there were twice – or ten times! – as many progressive activists as there are now, and if those activists were happy and effective and enjoying long full-time or part time careers. Entire societies and cultures, and quite possibly every society and culture, would be transformed.”

I didn’t think it needed saying, but obviously it does: Having to sit through a half-day’s worth of partisan wrangling, where you have access to water, food, staff, and the warm glow of TV cameras is not worse than (or even akin to) years of indefinite detention in a prison cell on a remote island, cut off from anyone you know or love, subject to routine abuse and frequent torture, all conducted under a cloak of official secrecy, outside the rule of law, without any recourse or any reasonable expectation that this hell will ever end. Further, such jocular comparisons are singularly insensitive to the denigration of human rights perpetrated under the color of authority, and, what’s more, are not in the least bit funny.

The House of Representatives is voting on the rule right now. It's expected to pass. The rule includes two amendments: the Republican substitute health care bill, and the "Stupak Amendment," which would effectively ban private insurers and the public option from providing coverage for abortion services in the individual and small group market (and eventually everywhere, as the exchanges will over time be open to large employers, too).

Let's be clear about this. The only reason that we are in the position where the price of passing health care reform is allowing even liberal Marcy Kaptur to sneeringly dismiss choice activists as narrow class warriors who don't care about working women is because Planned Parenthood and NARAL have allowed it to happen. They collect millions of dollars in revenue each year. They've exacted no price from the Marcy Kapturs of the world, who actually have to care what liberals think of them, and focused instead on anti-choice Republicans who are only empowered by their ire. They have no scalps. There is no price for bucking Planned Parenthood and NARAL. It isn't a fight that the Democrats want to spend "political capital" on, and these groups insure that they don't have to.