Well, that’s it. Stupak and the other fictional pro-life Democrats, using the cover of a worthless Executive Order, are voting for Health-care and federally funded abortion.
I am heartbroken. Heartbroken for the lives of children that will be lost. Heartbroken that my generation was unable to bequeath to our children the liberty we inherited. I am sorry. I am heartbroken and ashamed that I ever believed in Bart Stupak and the others.
May God have mercy on the United States.
Know these things.
There is no such thing as a pro-life Democrat. I don’t ever want to hear such nonsense again. They are the Party of Death, no exceptions.
This fight is not over.
March 21, 2010 at 10:15 pm
All you have to remember is that the Mexico City policy is governed by Executive Order and I think we all remember how that one went down.
Yeah, I'll trust Obama to keep that EO in place.
God help us.
March 21, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Following are excerpts taken from Stupak's opponent's Facebook page. I never heard of him before today, but he seems a very solid conservative: a doctor and prolife (but his prolife statement is the last in a long list of his positions, so I wonder how strong they are). But check it out. After this Stupak has to go.
Kit
Hi, I am Dan Benishek. I am running for U.S. Congress in Michigan’s 1st District and would like your support.
Please send contributions to:
Benishek for Congress
802 Pentoga Trail
Crystal Falls, MI 49920
March 21, 2010 at 10:49 pm
You let us down, Stupak.
March 21, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I never trusted Stupak would stand firm. His record supporting funding PP made me suspicious. He knows the Executive Order will not stand. He was just waiting for an excuse.
I am so very disappointed, but not as disappointed as my children are who put their hearts into protesting this bill yesterday. They have been sold out.
March 21, 2010 at 11:04 pm
I saw the story on CNN about Rep. Stupak supporting the Healthcare bill with the EO providing additional safeguards. Perhaps I am just in denial about Stupak caving, but the story seems a bit fishy to me. The inability of an executive order to curtail legislation was in the news all day yesterday, meaning that Stupak must have been aware of this for some time. Either his pro-life stance was really a sham, or we are not getting the whole story.
In either case, may God have mercy on this country!
JDTB
March 21, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Wait, what am I missing here? What is the difference between the "Stupak Ammendment" and the "Executive order to enforce the Hyde ammendment"? I read the verbiage and it sounds the same to me.
March 21, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Early Riser, the difference is that the Stupak Amendment would have been enacted as a piece of legislation. It's repeal would necessitate Congressional action.
On the other hand an Executive Order can be repealed at the stroke of a pen by any sitting President, for an example of this check out how the Mexico City Policy has been knocked about like a pingpong ball over the course of different administrations.
March 21, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Well, there go my plans to move to his district.
March 21, 2010 at 11:36 pm
The fight is not over until he comes. Good will triumph evil. We must continue the good fight.
March 21, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Subvet, thanks for the clarification. At the risk of getting all Pollyana here, I'm going to give this process the benefit of the doubt. In home construction, you don't lay bricks without the wooden frame. We can always have an ammendment to the bill after the fact if and when the Republicans- should they chose to finally walk the walk on abortion- take the majority. But if Obama does as promised, in the meantime there will be the executive order which will provide for everything the Stupak ammendment would have.
Other than the potential for the executive order being repealed at anytime (and it doesn't seem logical it would be repealed, at least not anytime soon), I can't see any issue here. But of course I'll wait for the bishops to weigh in here before making my mind up on this. Thanks again.
March 22, 2010 at 12:14 am
Archbishop Chaput denounces false 'Catholic witness' in health care support link:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop_chaput_those_confusing_catholic_stance_on_health_care_will_bear_blame_if_bill_passes/
Translation of Abp. Chaput's teaching: If those "nuns" don't repent and make up for the damage of their false teaching, they will burn in hell for all eternity.
Pelosi & other Catholic pols who support abortion are excommunicated automatically when they cast their votes. So, God will not be mocked and the unborn children's murders will not be avenged.
And God's people will take back the Church from the liberal nuns and false leaders. A sleeping giant has been awakened both in the Church and in the country. Roe will be reversed; Socialism will be stopped. We shall struggle and we shall win.
March 22, 2010 at 12:57 am
"There is no such thing as a pro-life Democrat."
I really do not want to believe that, because if it is true, then the pro-life cause is more or less dead in the water in this country for the foreseeable future. The cause of life will not succeed so long as it is purely the partisan preserve of one political party.
In any case, whatever Stupak did – and I fault him much more for gullibility than mendacity here – other Democrats are voting against this monstrosity, and a few of them are doing so over abortion funding. Let us not forget that.
March 22, 2010 at 1:02 am
"I don't think you can paint Bart Stupak with the same broad brush as Ben Nelson, who sold out the unborn for a hundred million pieces of silver. I think it's likely that Stupak became convinced that the bill was going to pass with or without the support of him and his dwindling coalition, and made the difficult decision that the healthcare bill with an EO was a lesser evil than the healthcare bill without an EO. In other words, he did the best he could under the circumstances, which is very different from selling out. Had the original 12 hung tight, this wouldn't have happened.
~Siobhan"
Exactly, Siobhan. I don't understand the violence of the language being used here. Stupak may in the end have made a bad decision, but let's at least consider the possibility that he was doing everything he could in good faith to keep abortion out of health care, and is voting for it in the hope the President will keep his word.
My memory doesn't quite stretch back that far, but I'm willing to bet the the author of the Hyde Amendment himself, Rep. Henry Hyde, took a lot of flack for actually agreeing to allow the federal government to fund ANY abortions – those for mother's life, rape and incest. Yet quite a lot of good has come out of that amendment.
And now what if we did something totally counter-intuitive and wrote to thank the President for respecting the Hyde amendment and the principles of the pro-life representatives in Congress?
Because guess what, folks? Obama is not Satan (though saying so may make you feel good). HE IS A POLITICIAN. Politicians want to be popular. He is sinking in the polls at the moment. If he sees he is becoming more popular by issuing this executive order, he will be more likely to abide by it. I'm sure he's already realizing that the pro-abort camp is just a millstone around his neck.
I guess he didn't realize when he was elected that the country was really turning in the pro-life direction. Most politicians will bend with the wind that is blowing. We can encourage him to do so.
And then let's be sure that we get all the pro-death ideologues out of Congress in November, and put some people in place who will craft some sensible legislation that repeals or amends the whole monstrosity of a bill, and will instead enact some sensible health care legislation.
Threatening extinction to the fragile tribe of pro-life Democrats (or much worse, denying their existence) is not going to help. We need more, not fewer of them. We need to work with the situation we've got, not sit around uselessly moaning and carping and failing to understand political realities.
March 22, 2010 at 1:04 am
"In other words, he did the best he could under the circumstances, which is very different from selling out."
"Selling out" would mean giving away his vote for a dam project or some other slushola for his district (like say Ben Nelson or Mary Landrieux). Instead, he changed his vote because he was offered something which appeared on its surface to address his central concern that the government fund abortions.
Now, he may be enormously gullible. He may be tremendously naive. He may have shown very bad judgment. And I am certainly massively, massively disappointed in him. But I won't call him a "sellout." I don't think anyone else should either.
March 22, 2010 at 1:06 am
Threatening extinction to the fragile tribe of pro-life Democrats (or much worse, denying their existence) is not going to help. We need more, not fewer of them.
Amen.
May their tribe increase.
March 22, 2010 at 1:22 am
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows"
Galatians 6:7 (New International Version)
May God have mercy on the United States of America…we shall need it after tonight
March 22, 2010 at 1:29 am
And so, the bishops will publicly excommunicate Stupak, Pelosi, Biden and any other sad pro-choice Catholic politicians who vote contrary to the USCCB position on the bill — first thing tomorrow? Right? Right?
Sigh.
March 22, 2010 at 1:39 am
There are no pro-life Democrats, there are only Democrats who need to say certain things to get elected in pro-life districts.
March 22, 2010 at 1:59 am
The United States of America 7/4/1776-3/21/10.
We shall contiune to fight the good fight, run the race and endure till the end. May Almighty God Have Mercy on our Country!!! Our good and free country has been taken over by evil men and women.
This was brought about by men and women who stopped being Catholic… Name Only, Cafeteria, Heretical, Modernistic Catholics!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Mr. Stupak…
March 22, 2010 at 2:20 am
Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days. Mt 24:19
As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?" Lk 23:26-31