Part of the problem, and there are several, is that the bill isn't Obama's. It's Congress', specifically belonging to congressional Democrats, who, like the Republicans, aren't known for their... legislative restraint. It doesn't help that the president owes a great many favors to many in the House and Senate. And then there are the special interest groups and lobbyists to whom he has somehow, either recently or in the past, wound up owing favors as well. And this health insurance bill is their payoff. And as you and I well know, abortion rights figures promintently in many of the president's allies' and cohorts' view of How The World Should Be.