Sarah Kliff

I've already said my share on what Obama did not say in his State of the Union address. But it's also worthwhile to take a look at what he did say, which policy provisions in health-care reform made the cut for the speech and which ones did not.

On the surface, Obama made it clear in his State of the Union address that he wanted Congress to pass health-care reform. He admitted that it's been a politically rocky road, but beseeched legislators to "find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people." This is good—the Democrats would be in a pretty horrible place if Obama had come out against the signature piece of legislation in his freshman year.

The first increase in teen pregnancy in more than a decade has, unsurprisingly, led many to place blame on Bush's heavy funding of abstinence-only education.

Wonk Room points us to a revealing interview that Sen. Ben Nelson gave to Life Site News, a high-profile news source among opponents of abortion. Remember that abortion compromise he and Senator Reid worked out?

After yesterday's panic over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's not having enough votes to pass the Senate version of health-care reform, there's a new narrative picking up a lot of steam today: Pelosi needs to get her caucus in order, follow the original White House recommendation, and pass the Senate version of the bill through the chamber.So, how exactly did we get from "Pelosi doesn't have the votes" to "Pelosi needs to get the votes" in a mere 24 hours?

In the 2010, ultraquick news cycle, Pelosi's "I don't see the votes for it at this time" comment got the pretty standard treatment: high-ranking Democrat says something about health care, and a collective Beltway blogosphere freakout ensues. Did Nancy Pelosi Just Declare Health Care Dead?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi fueled speculation of health care's demise when earlier this morning she told reporters, "I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House.

Remember back about two months ago, when pro-choice groups were organizing "Stop Stupak!" rallies after a surprise abortion restriction found its way into the final House bill?

Recent court cases revisit questions about a fetus's rights—and the rights of a pregnant woman.

Although the man who admits killing abortion doctor George Tiller can argue he committed voluntary manslaughter rather than murder, he is unlikely to succeed in doing so.

Thanks to a disease that lays dormant for up to 30 years, Baby Boomers well past their wild years are starting to suffer the consequences.

The health-care-reform bill, among its many provisions, does a lot to encourage small businesses to insure their employees. In the Senate version, those with fewer than 25 employees receive tax credits that make insuring employees more affordable.

For the back page of this week's dead-tree edition, I combed through the Senate's 2,074-page bill to answer what, turns out to be, a pretty complex question: how does health-care reform affect you?

The New Republic is reporting (and Talking Points Memo is confirming) that Democrats will likely skip conference committee, opting instead to resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions via "ping-pong," i.e.

California cuts back cancer screening for low-income women.

Although health care has dominated the policy sphere as of late, I wanted to call attention to the sex-education funding in the 2010 Appropriations Bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies.

While getting Senators' unanimous agreement on the health care bill Senate just sent to Congress would be impossible, I bet we could get them to agree on one thing: the debate was really, really long.

In covering the health-care-reform debate, I have watched a lot of . Usually, it's pretty mundane stuff, senators repeating their various talking points and requesting a few extra moments to finish their remarks without any objection.

 When I stumbled onto the upcoming "One Size Fits All" photo essay  in the January issue of V magazine, featuring plus-size model Crystal Renn, I was initially pleased.

In the who-got-what game, here's one that has not gotten much attention: in Sen. Harry Reid's manager's amendment, Sen. Bob Casey secured some long-sought-after funding for pregnant and parenting teenagers.

With Senate compromise, pro-choice stalwarts have disappointed their supporters in the women's rights movement.

Since writing a story about the fee for opting out of health care, I've gotten a number of questions (a few from my NEWSWEEK colleagues) on how the federal subsidies would work: who gets them, why and how they can be spent?

The predicted deluge of statements on the Nelson-Reid abortion compromise have begun to filter in, and there is a bizarre moment of widespread consensus from groups that both support and oppose abortion rights:We hate this compromise.

After 13 hours of negotiations, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson signed on to health-care reform as the pivotal 60th vote. He did so with stronger prohibitions on abortion than those floated by Sen.

Want to really spook a senator? Just whisper the word filibuster. Lieberman is doing it over anything remotely resembling a public option, Nelson has a similar take on abortion language, and even Roland Burris is trying the filibuster threat on for size, albeit in an opposite direction.But here's a really scary proposition: what if President Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid throw up their hands and say, "OK, fine, go for the filibuster"?

Earlier this week we poked some fun at the extraordinary demands we may soon expect from health-care holdout Joe Lieberman, including a provision not to cover Americans born in a month without an "r." Turns out the independent senator from Connecticut has stepped up his demands, and no one is more frustrated than the folks at left-leaning MoveOn.org, which has turned its irritation into creativity.

Health-care reform hinges on a lot of things: liberals staying on board through a series of compromises, Joe Lieberman's vote, and the willingness of Senators to spend Christmas in session—all have gotten a lot of press lately as crucial factors in the debate.

Sen. Bob Casey has been showing his "abortion compromise" language around Washington today. The idea is that a compromise could win over Sen. Ben Nelson, who has threatened to filibuster if the Senate does not add Stupak language to its version of the health-care-reform bill.

Even with a health-care overhaul, thousands of Americans may pay a fine rather than purchase insurance. Here's why.