I thought anti-choice monsters on the right (regardless of party) and their Stockholm-syndrome-stunned fellow travelers had already skinned reproductive rights to the bone in the “negotiations” previously. This feels like they just wanted to pour salt on raw wounds. Just because they could.

Stupack and his masters also obviously crafted it as a bomb to be dropped at the last minute — I can’t believe how unprepared the House managers were. I’m pretty sure that if they hadn’t been so blindsided they might have mounted an effective opposition instead of letting it get to a floor vote.

For instance it would have been nice if anybody had asked for a CBO score on the Stupak amendment. Hard to imagine a $500 termination hitting the Federal Budget harder than $10,000 for a health term delivery, or $20-30,000 for a c-section, let alone $100,000+ for care for a woman who had a preeclampsia-induced stroke late in an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.

That might have been a zero-cost no-brainer now, while coverage can still be declined because pregnancy is a preexisting condition. But presumably the new bill is going to stick both private insurers and any public providers with an itemized bill.

A CBO score will almost certainly reflect that. And it’s not too late! While it’s too late for the House version a big fat CBO score would complicate its survival in the Senate and during reconciliation.

Add this to the list of things to be done sooner than later.

Something else we can work on to stop this, from Matt Yglesias: bring pressure to bear to make sure the composition of the conference committee and the rules it operates under keep this abomination out of the conference report. After Saturday’s ambush is something else that should not be left to chance. Anymore.