There are few less respected monikers in politics than “pro-life.”

Democrats like their “pro-lifers” in name only. They like their pro-life legislators to be of the lukewarm variety like Bob Casey who talks the talk but always discovers a reason to abandon the cause when it suits the party’s needs.

The Republican Party establishment also looks down their nose at the pro-life movement. Look at how most fiscal conservatives view Sarah Palin. For years fiscal conservatives have spoken in stage whispers about ridding pro-lifers from the Republican Party. Remember Kathleen Parker’s prescription for a successful GOP was getting rid of those “oogedy-boogedy” Christianistas.

So I just find it kind of ironic that the fiscal conservatives who’ve looked down their nose at pro-lifers for years are now looking to a handful of pro-lifers to save the country from socialism. Democrat pro-lifers to boot.

Weird, huh?

It’s very rare indeed for the fate of a country to come down to one or two or even a handful of people. But I don’t think it’s stretching the truth to say that right now the fate of Obamacare rests in the hands of pro-life legislators like Senator Ben Nelson and Congressman Bart Stupak.

With the government attempting to take over a huge chunk of the economy and for all intents and purposes nationalizing the abortion industry, it’s safe to say Obama’s healthcare plan is a pivotal bill in our country’s history.

And in the Senate right now it comes down to Ben Nelson. Nelson has a chance to stop this government overreach with a massive show of courage. And make no mistake about it, it would take one massive show of courage.

To side with the GOP to filibuster Obama’s prize legislation would make him public enemy number one in the White House’s eyes. Nelson would likely be cut off from funding from the party’s biggest donors for his re-election. Remember Joe Lieberman was shunned for supporting the Iraq War and was forced to run as an Independent. That’ll likely be nothing compared to how Nelson would be treated.

Nelson said last week that the need for stronger anti-abortion language in the Senate health care bill is “non-negotiable,” and he would filibuster the legislation without it.

But today when his pro-life legislation went down in flames Nelson left himself some wiggle room, according to Hot Air.

A few reporters waiting outside the door asked him how it would effect his decision on whether to support the final effort.

“I want to continue to work on this,” he said, not ruling out his support, at least “not at this point in time. I want to continue to work on the project we’re working on… This makes it harder right now [to support the bill]. We’ll have to see if they can make it easier.”

Uh-oh. That doesn’t seem as strong as we would’ve liked.

Let’s hope that Nelson stays strong. But if Nelson cracks then the Stupak Amendment will almost certainly be stripped from the final product and then it comes down to Bart Stupak and his merry band of pro-life Democrats in the House. Will Stupak and other pro-life Democrats vote for a bill that includes federal funding of abortion after they worked so hard to ensure it was kept out?

Stupak has said he won’t. We’ll see.

It’s ironic that Obama’s promise to bring together the country has worked best by bringing together fiscal conservatives and pro-lifers in a common cause. Maybe they won’t look down their nose at us quite so much in the future.