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Can Stupak Save the Democrats?
National Review Online ^ | December 21, 2009, 3:45 p.m. | The Editors

Posted on 12/23/2009 10:50:28 AM PST by neverdem








Can Stupak Save the Democrats?
By the Editors

Pregnancy is not a disease. Hence abortion, in the vast majority of cases, is not health care. Contemporary liberalism is ideologically committed to denying this truth. Fifty-one percent of Americans contacted in a recent poll said that private health insurance should not cover abortion. One hundred percent of Senate Democrats just voted for legislation that, in the process of remaking American health care, creates new subsidies for health policies that do cover it.

If this bill passes, abortion will become a cheaper option for millions of women. We know that the demand for it is sensitive to price. Abortion rates will increase. For almost two decades, many Democrats who favor legal abortion, including Presidents Clinton and Obama, have said that they want to see that rate drop. They have a funny way of showing it.

Obama has said for months that he wants a health-care bill that leaves the status quo on abortion law in place. This bill radically revises the status quo in a pro-abortion direction. Under current law, federal dollars very rarely pay for abortion: Federal employees’ health plans do not, for instance, cover it. The Senate bill overturns this principle. It also implicitly authorizes the secretary of health and human services to require that all private health plans cover elective abortions.

Pro-lifers long ago learned not to trust anything that Democratic leaders say about where they stand on abortion. This week has brought definitive proof that they cannot trust two men who had claimed to be pro-lifers themselves: Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Long after the Dick Durbins, Jesse Jacksons, and Dick Gephardts of the world had abandoned the unborn to get ahead in their party, Casey and Nelson ran for office telling anti-abortion voters that they could rely on them. One might have thought the promise would apply to this legislation, which may have a more direct effect on the abortion rate than anything else they have done. Perhaps Casey and Nelson believe that the legislation somehow keeps pro-lifers from having to subsidize abortion; it contains accounting devices to sustain that illusion. But there is no denying that the legislation makes abortion more accessible. It is hard to see how anyone seeking to stand in solidarity with the unborn would have supported it. That Nelson traded his vote for a modest increase in his state’s take from the federal government does not suggest that such solidarity was uppermost on his mind.

Washington is giving a lavish gift to the abortion lobby after years of declining public support for it. Senate Democrats have unanimously placed their party well to the left of public opinion. Sixty-four House Democrats, on the other hand, voted for Rep. Bart Stupak’s amendment to block the federal government from subsidizing abortion. It is up to them, and especially to the pro-lifers among them, to prove that their party is not a closed club made up of pro-abortion extremists and those they can buy off. Stupak has his work cut out for him.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; casey; nelson; stupak

1 posted on 12/23/2009 10:50:30 AM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

No matter how you stand on abortion, in 99% of the cases it is an elective procedure. The federal government should not be paying for elective procedures and that is how the GOP should approach it. Much more passable than trying to make it a religious/ moral issue.


2 posted on 12/23/2009 10:55:26 AM PST by refermech
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To: neverdem
It is up to them, and especially to the pro-lifers among them, to prove that their party is not a closed club made up of pro-abortion extremists and those they can buy off. Stupak has his work cut out for him.

Politicians are, by definition, whores. Democrat politicians are cheap whores. The Dem. Reps. will be bought off just as easily as the Dem Senators.

3 posted on 12/23/2009 10:56:25 AM PST by Prokopton
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To: neverdem
I'm convinced that 99.9% of all Democrats and 95% of all Republicans in washington are for abortion. I truly believe many GOPers, behind closed doors with their Democrat buddies, say stuff like, "Y'know, the only reason I claim to be pro-Life is so those Dubmasses in my district will re-elect me".

Name me ONE Washington leader who's truly pro-baby-saving.

4 posted on 12/23/2009 10:59:18 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/TeddyVWad.jpg)
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To: MuttTheHoople
Name me ONE Washington leader who's truly pro-baby-saving.

Uh, there is....uh then there are.....Oh, never mind.

5 posted on 12/23/2009 11:10:59 AM PST by itsahoot (Each generation takes to excess, what the previous generation accepted in moderation.)
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To: wagglebee

I don’t think that Stupak should save the Democrats, and I hope hs amendment doesn’t.


6 posted on 12/23/2009 11:13:16 AM PST by Clintonfatigued (Liberal sacred cows make great hamburger)
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To: neverdem
Pregnancy is not a disease. Abortion is not healthcare. I'll sit in a jail cell before I pay one dime for it. There are things worth fighting for.
7 posted on 12/23/2009 11:21:24 AM PST by JPG (Al Gore, the several million degree man.)
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To: neverdem

is that chirping noise I hear late-season crickets, or the American Conference of Catholic Bishops??


8 posted on 12/23/2009 11:30:55 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

They’ve already condemned the Reid bill . . .


9 posted on 12/23/2009 12:13:09 PM PST by Mach9 (.)
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To: neverdem

Stupak is pro-life (but not pro-life enough to not be a democrat and vote for Pelosi) and pro-2A (a must for being elected in his district) on the other issues he sucks like the rest of them.


10 posted on 12/23/2009 2:34:26 PM PST by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN | NO "INDIVIDUAL MANDATE"!!!!!!!)
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To: Clintonfatigued
I don’t think that Stupak should save the Democrats, and I hope hs amendment doesn’t.

Do you want the rats to pass healthcare reform out of the conference committee?

11 posted on 12/23/2009 2:42:19 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: neverdem

No, I want the health care porposal to crash and burn, and for the public to vote the Democrats out.


12 posted on 12/23/2009 3:17:45 PM PST by Clintonfatigued (Liberal sacred cows make great hamburger)
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To: JPG

If I’m going to be forced to pay for their child killing then I will start eliminating random liberals to offset the cost. I’ve had it with them. They don’t deserve to be treated like humans. Not even as animals. They are a disease to be eradicated.


13 posted on 12/23/2009 4:24:59 PM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: neverdem
What Stupak said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr68joWr1E&feature=related
14 posted on 12/23/2009 4:36:20 PM PST by cornelis
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To: cornelis

Thanks for the link. Stupak sounds like a thin reed. We need stouter folks or a Divine Intervention.


15 posted on 12/23/2009 4:58:43 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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