The Church, his Church, my Church has recognized abortion as a grave evil. There is no circumstance under which we can compromise or accept a grave evil. Further, the Church recognizes that tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil.
We serve our fellow man best by serving God first. We honor our nation best by living our Catholic faith honestly and vigorously, and bringing it without apology into the public square and its debates. We're citizens of heaven first, Americans second and Democrats and Republicans a distant third. But just as God so loved the world that he sent his only son, so the glory and irony of the Christian life is this: The more faithfully we love God, the more truly we serve the world, our country and our party.
Stupak is misguided in hes disregard or trivialization of the murder of millions of innocents for political expediency or a quid pro quo from an elected leader. All political leaders draw their authority from God. We owe no leader any submission or cooperation in the pursuit of grave evil.
In fact, we have the duty to change bad laws and resist grave evil in our public life, both by our words and our non-violent actions. The truest respect we can show to civil authority is the witness of our Catholic faith and our moral convictions, without excuses or apologies.
Stupak seems to be reasoning that since most pro-life people are conservatives who would not have wanted most of the other provisions of Obamacare, that was the only reason they wanted Stupak to hold out for his amendment.
That EO is not going to do squat. Some almost universally loathed abortion advocate (so as to take the lightning rod away from Planned Barrenhood) is going to sue and that EO will be gone like a sheet of toilet paper before a 12 inch cannon.