Pro-life lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have slammed purported compromise language on abortion in healthcare reform as a “sham.” The language was proposed in an amendment known as the “Ellsworth amendment” by Democrats desperate to overcome a bloc within their own party that will attempt to bring down the abortion-expanding bill if it is not changed.

The development comes just two days after Rep. Chris Smith warned thousands of listeners on a pro-life webcast that House leadership was likely to come up with language that would appear to lessen the bill’s abortion threat. But, as Smith and other leaders on the webcast insisted, Democrats in the House are not about to give up the “abortion industry bailout” in the bill.

“Today we see yet another phony amendment designed to subsidize and expand the abortion industry cloaked in deceptive language,” Smith said following the introduction of the Ellsworth amendment.

“Under the new arrangement, instead of an HHS employee issuing blood money checks for elective abortions, HHS will pay a contractor to issue checks for abortion on demand,” Smith explained. “It is a distinction without a difference. The public should not be fooled nor should any pro-life Democrat.”

In the Ellsworth plan, the government-run public health insurance option would still cover abortion, but would have to contract with private contractors to carry out the administrative functions related to paying for elective abortion.