Sunday’s partisan vote for health care legislation in the House signals the likely end of longtime cross-party cooperation among Members opposed to abortion. The last-minute collapse of the Stupak 7, pro-life Democrats who voted for the Stupak-Pitts abortion funding limitation amendment on November 7, 2009, as well as for the House bill passed that same day, made the Democratic leaders’ retreat on the Hyde Amendment bicameral. It followed the defections last December of Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Bob Casey (D-PA), who engineered much of the abortion language opposed by the National Right to Life Committee and other groups as “a political hoax.”
The Stupak Stumble follows the course of a long-term trajectory. For many years it has been nearly impossible for a Democrat with strong pro-life convictions to secure nomination to statewide federal office, much less the Presidency. Meanwhile, the number of pro-life Democrats in the U.S. House steadily declined for a generation, but there appeared to be a core group of more senior Members, led by Bart Stupak (D-MI) and other Midwest Democrats, that would hold out against the blandishments of the Democratic leadership. That illusion was all but shattered Sunday, as the latest in a series of piecrust promises, a Presidential executive order, was enough to cover the Stupak 7’s vote for a bill they had labeled “unacceptable” for months.
It should be noted that another 19 Democrats both opposed the health care bill and supported a last-gasp motion to recommit the bill for inclusion of the original pro-life language. These members held fast and one of them – Rep. Dan Lipinski of suburban Chicago – flipped from a “yea” last November to a “nay” now solely because of the omission of Stupak-Pitts from the final bill. If there is a base for rebuilding the Democratic tradition on the abortion issue, it will have to come from this remnant.
At a deeper level, however, Sunday’s vote marks a profound philosophical Rubicon. The Democratic majority enacted a bill that is likely, combined with future actions on the “doc fix” in Medicare and other spending drivers, to cause the federal deficit and national debt to continue rising. This disregard for the next generation is part and parcel of the obtuseness that disregards the crumbling of family indicators (an out-of-wedlock birth rate likely to pass 40% of all births in the next report from the National Center for Health Statistics and the moral basis of millions of Americans’ concerns about publicly financed abortion.
Stupak’s abandonment of those concerns may have helped advance one major piece of legislation, but it has left a field of opportunity for advocates of a unified vision of the nation’s future. That vision is one that would recognize the fundamental integrity of policies that buttress civil society and foster the personal character and individual enterprise that are a nation’s greatest resources. The advantage will go to those public officials who give more attention to the indivisibility of such virtues as thrift and fidelity and the deferred gratification they require. But to coax these virtues forth, they must first be reinvigorated in those who elect our leaders.
Passage of the Democratic leadership’s health care bill may be historic, but so also is Stupak’s Stumble. And on both of these subjects, the American people will have the last word.
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I heard that president obama did NOT sign the promised executive order–did he??
It's hard to understand that Chuck Donovan is so naive or lacks the knowledge to
realize Stupak did not "stumble". Stupak delibertately deceived all of us. He NEVER intended to vote against Obamacare. He knew full well that Obama's EO is not worth the paper it's written on, even if Obama would have signed the EO yesterday, which, for some strange reason, he did not.
Congressman Stupack and his pro-life contingencies flip reminded me of "Peters denial in the courtyard when it came to being ask if he knew Jesus". Responding with a lack of conviction and backbone replied, "I never knew Him" and voted YES on the bill. Judas denial also caught my attention when Congressman Stupack was bought with [($750,000) (gold)] to betray Jesus in the garden. The sad outcome of it all is that he knew the amendment was not worth the paper it was printed on and voted YES on the bill.
Since an executive order cannot over rule a law of the land it's worthless, also can we the citizens see what was promised to each and every member who voted for this bill. I am totally disgusted with my congressman who sat on the fence until the last moment then voted Yeah. Come Nov. my vote will be against him for sure, and I'll help unseat him.
This abortion debate needs to take a back seat to the destruction of the economy and the middle-class currently in progress. I for one do not feel it is a moral issue. However, I feel as someone who believes in individual freedoms that a woman has the right to an abortion on demand in the first trimester. Can we deal with real issues???
Bart Stupak, what a stand-up guy, what a Profile in courage.
Stupak's opposition to federal funding of abortion ranks right up there with George McGovern's commitment to support his V.P. running mate, Tom Eagleton 1000%, after it was announced that Eagleton was once treated for a psychiatric problem. (For those too young to remember, Eagleton was dropped from the ticket shortly thereafter.)
The Dishonorable Bart Stupak Is The Modern Day Judas! Stupak Sold His Sole For 7 Pieces Of Silver And $700,000 Of Airport Maintenance! Just One Pre-Born Life That Could Have Been Saved Dwarfs Any Monitary Value That Stupak Recieved! Bart Stupak "LIED" To The American People And Needs To Be Removed From Congress!
I heard that supposedly OBuma signed it behind closed doors. He wouldn't allow any pictures or anything. This is all a bunch of deceit. This is bad for America and I feel like I'm watching my country die right along with all the pre born children. Life is the realist issue there is..
Were there no responses to this article on March 24th, or is there some delay in posting comments sent today, March 24th?
karen cummings of Georgia. If abortion is not a moral issue, than what is?
Abortion will be the main issue when it is not the right of a woman to have a child because of the upcoming mandated abortion we will soon have in this country because you will not be able to have more then one child per family. If you can't smell where this issue is going and who is bringing it on then you should not be given the free right to vote.
It seems to be a targeted benefit (for a lack of a better term?) While there are cultures of immigrants that have children when they are physically able (we were told tradition for farm hands,) until they are physically unable, continue to carry on that tradition whether on a farm or not. What are the percentages according to "race" that has abortions? And what percentage of immigrants are independently taking care of their own. since there is no reason to carry out this tradition, as they're not on the farmland their culture once lived?
Our last chance (if not too late already) to get the right kind of people in DC that will keep America from going with the Europeans is coming in November. We all are suffering from the deficits already wrought. Let's turn it around and get enough fiscal and moral conservatives in DC to return America to the most successful, robust and morally straight country on Earth.
"STUPAK LIES" enough said