After weeks and months of dithering it’s all come down to today. The Stupak amendment to block federal funding of abortion will be voted on today.
LifeNews.com reports:
In a surprise move after hours of tumultuous negotiations, the House Rules Committee, very early Saturday morning, approved rules for debate on the pro-abortion health care bill. Although it appeared Speaker Nancy Pelosi would deny one, it allows a vote on an amendment to remove abortion funding.
Pelosi’s hand appeared to have been forced when pro-abortion House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced earlier in the day that she did not have enough votes to pass the bill because of objections from pro-life Democrats.
The committee okayed a Rule that allows the House to vote on the Stupak amendment, offered by pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, to the health care reform legislation.
Pray for Congress to do the right thing. And call your legislators to encourage them to vote against taxpayer money funding abortion.
For weeks Stupak and a cohort of pro-life Democrats have held up healthcare legislation by telling Nancy Pelosi that they wouldn’t vote for the bill as long as they didn’t get an up or down vote on the floor on the Stupak amendment restricting taxpayer money from going to pay for abortions.
Pelosi clearly didn’t want to allow that bill because just about the last thing legislators want to vote on is abortion. It ranks right behind having all their teeth pulled out with pliers.
But now, because Pelosi saw she didn’t have enough votes to pass healthcare without them, she is allowing the Stupak amendment to be voted on.
Now, Steven Ertelt of LifeNews.com wrote today that “If the amendment is defeated, Stupak and pro-life Democrats will likely still oppose the bill because of the abortion funding.”
But I’m not so sure about it as Stupak stated previously that if his amendment were defeated he would likely vote for the healthcare bill whether it included abortion or not. So I’m hoping Ertelt has some information that I don’t have.
Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that today’s vote on the Stupak Amendment could be the most important abortion-related vote since the Supreme Court cast its decision on Roe v. Wade.
Johnson said:
“This will be one of the most important roll call votes that U.S. House members ever casts on a pro-life issue,” he said. “Any lawmaker who votes against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is, in effect, voting in favor of establishing a federal government program that will directly fund abortion on demand, with federal funds.”
Pray and act. Almost all of us who read this blog are pro-life. Well, today is the day the rubber meets the road. Please call your legislators.
Update: Read Patrick’s take on what the Stupak amendment might not accomplish. Be Careful What You Wish For.
Update II: Oh No! Congressman Stupak is predicting healthcare will pass. According to Michelle Malkin:
Stupak said: Health care has the votes whether anti-abortion amendment passes or fails. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) told reporters that regardless of the outcome of the vote on his amendment, which would severely restrict coverage of reproductive health issues, the House health care bill is headed for passage. He is whipping support for the amendment and estimates he has 225 votes. If he’s right, the amendment will pass, and he predicted enough pro-life Democrats will vote yes on the final bill to put it over the top. But if it fails, he said, enough pro-lifers will have been satisfied to have had their vote on the floor that they’ll turn around and support the final bill anyway.
Update III: Patrick’s prediction seems to be coming true. LifeNews.com reports that:
Leading House Democrats are refusing to give pro-life lawmakers any guarantee that they will keep the Stupak amendment that cuts off abortion funding in the health care bill in later versions of the legislation should the House approve it.
The House is expected to vote on the crucial amendment today to ensure abortion funding is not allowed in either the public option or through the affordability credits.
However, even if the House adopts the Stupak amendment, there is no guarantee that it will remain when House and Senate leaders meet in a conference committee to iron out the differences in the two bills.
November 7, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Do you think this might all be Obama strategery? Now that there are such things as "Pro-life Democrats", more Catholics will feel free to vote Democrat in general elections.
November 7, 2009 at 4:59 pm
When I left the house this morning for work, I told my husband to grab his rosary & pray…this is a Lepanto Moment!
November 7, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Even if the Stupak amendment passes, the bill is still dangerous since federal socialized medicine is always dangerous. Passing of the bill will only allow them to allow abortion coverage later on. There is a reason that abortion coverage is included in every country with socialized medicine except Malta which as a small country has been able to resist this.
November 7, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Absolutely, Jeff, absolutely. This bill is a danger to our freedom, our persons, and our children. All the Stupak amendment will do is delay the inevitable and weaken the strong opposition to the bill in its entirety. And yes, I have called my Congressman and sent a score of letters and emails to her–a pro-abortion zealot.
The lesson is to never trust a conciliatory crocodile.
November 7, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Your whole cowardly 'news' organization is such a help to Planned Parenthood's big money drive to brain wash the American Catholic Public in believing, against all reason – and Catholic teaching, that Abortion is not murder but only "Killing", Killing: you know, like what they do to chickens when one is needing to feed ones little children? Are you taking money from Planned Barrenhood to get as many innocent unbaptized babies murdered as possible? You are evil and disgusting people! Thanks for nothing – you do much more harm than good in this universe and you comfortable people know it – we who have given our all for the Pro-life movement are not so comfortable as you, not nearly, but we sleep at night – something you all will not longer ever be able to do – ask me how I know that!
November 7, 2009 at 8:40 pm
My prediction:
The bill will pass, with full coverage for abortion. This will cause major unrest. We will see the rise of genuine acts of terror from certain pockets in the pro-life movement. This will serve to justify many people's suspicion of fanaticism among our ranks. Things will begin to suck really bad for us. Conscience clauses and similar items will go bye-bye.
Meanwhile, some super-craptastic things will happen in the world at large, causing a lot of warfare and devastation. We'll also soon discover that global warming was a red-herring, and that global feminization caused by chemical pollution in the environment is the real crises, having caused our sexual fallout, proliferation of sexual deviancies, and declining birthrates.
Without enough young folks to support a bloating geriatric population, the economy will go down the toilet completely, euthanasia will become very common, maybe even mandatory under certain circumstances. We'll become the third world.
Then in the middle east, a man the likes of which has not been seen since Saladin the Great will arise, uniting Muslims in a new Ottoman Empire and leading a glorious conquest of most of Europe and North Africa. At the same time, a re-emergent and reformed communism will arise in China, creating a secular empire that will dominate most of Asia. These two empires, one Muslim and the other atheist, will be the major players for the next five centuries or so.
Christianity will be confined to the Americas, generally South America, and the southern half of Africa and maybe Australia. We will fracture into warring pseudo-democracies and the occasional Catholic theocracy or Muslim colony, depending on which world power is giving guns to the warlords. If you haven't figured it out by now, the United States will be long gone, crippled by one civil war after another. Democracy, globalization, and other great concepts we hold in high esteem will be nothing but jokes to those who remain.
Oh, and Sarah Palin will either fade into irrelevance or become an Amazonian warrior guardian of the Independent People's Union of Alaska, otherwise known as the Glacial Empire, which will be a Lutheran/Calvinist hybrid theocracy defended by armored polar bears.
Yes, the last paragraph was a joke.
Hang on for the ride kids! Let's see how right I'll turn out to be.
November 8, 2009 at 4:16 am
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November 8, 2009 at 4:18 am
Ok, so am I the only one that read Hal's extremely witty and concise comment and promptly had a WTF moment?
Hal, do you mind rephrasing your accusations so that those of us who AREN'T on a Thorazine drip can make sense of them?