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Seven Republicans voted against a law that would have prohibited sex-selection abortions:

1. Justin Amash of MI-03. Another in a serious of goofy votes that run interference for liberal Democrats by Western Michigan’s Ron Paul wannabe. As I wrote back in February of this year:

“Amash has turned out to be a turd sandwich, casting ridiculous, Ron-Paul-type votes to “make a point,” thus giving liberal Democrats ammunition to claim that “even conservative Justin Amash agrees with us” or “the bill was so extreme that even Republican Justin Amash voted against it.” I hope that he doesn’t cap off his embarrassing first term by finding a way to lose one of the most Republican districts in Michigan.”

Bill Hardiman (conservative former mayor of Kentwood and 8-year state senator from a swing district) would have never cast such a stupid vote. I hope the next time a young man runs for Congress based on solely on his record during a single term in the state assembly that we check the fine print.

2. Ron Paul. The gift that keeps on giving (for Democrats). Thankfully, he’s gone on January 3, 2013. Funny how Paul claims that Congress doesn’t have the constitutional authority to prohibit or limit abortion (ignoring Section 5 of the 14th Amendment), yet a few years ago he voted in favor of the ban on partial-birth abortion—as usual, Paul shed his “principled” view of congressional power when he knew that he’d lose reelection if he didn’t vote for the bill. And now Justin Amash wants to amulate Paul? Just peachy.

3. Richard Hanna of NY-24 (now NY-22), who is probably the most pro-abortion Republican in Congress. He has been one of only 2 Republicans to vote against the Pitts-Lipinski Protect Life Act (the 2011 bill that would ban the use of public money for abortion under Obamacare), one of only 10 Republicans to vote against a bill that would prohibit hospitals that take federal funding from discriminating against doctors who object to participating in abortions, and one of only 7 Republicans to vote against the ban on federal funding for Planned Parenthood (the biggest abortion “provider” in America). Hanna represents execrable RINO’s Sherry Boehlert’s old district, and he is as pro-abortion as Boehlert ever was. But some Tea Party groups think that Hanna is a good conservative because he supports cutting the size of government (as long as it doesn’t include decreasing funding for abortion, I guess). We can certainly do better in a district that leans Republican. Unfortunately, no prominent Republican filed to run against Hanna, leaving only the largely unknown and underfunded Mike Kicinski as a Republican challenger. http://www.kicinskiforcongress.com/ Kicinski sounds like a good man and solid conservative, but he’s not going to win the primary, at least not in 2012 (and, Impy, he’s got a mustache). We need to recruit a strong challenger for 2014.

4. Nan Hayworth of NY-19 (now NY-18). A very disappointing vote. while I had opposed Hayworth in the 2010 primary because she campaigned as “pro-choice,” she had pleasantly surprised me by having a perfect pro-life voting record during her first term in Congress—until yesterday. She’s running unopposed in the GOP primary, so we’ll have to wait until 2014 to challenge her. While her district is more socially liberal than Hanna’s, it could certainly elect someone like state senator Greg Ball (who is pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother—the George W. Bush position). http://www.nysenate.gov/senator/greg-ball

5. Charlie Bass (NH-02). Not a big surprise, since Bass is adamantly pro-abortion, but he recently voted for the Protect Life, and years ago voted for final passage of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (albeit not against its sham substitute amendment from pro-abortion liberals), so I had held out some hope he’d vote the right way. Bass is in a socially liberal district and will face a highly funded liberal Democrat in the general, so we’re in a hold-your-nose situation there right now. But hopefully a more conservative, and politically viable, Republican will run in 2014.

6. Bob Dold (IL-10). Dold warned us that he was “pro-choice,” and his voting record so far has been identical to that of Charlie Bass’s. The socially liberal IL-10 has been made even more liberal, and Dold faces a very uphill reelection, so I’m not really surprised by his vote.

7. Mary Bono (CA-45, now CA-36). Mary Bono used to have a largely pro-life voting record, but has gone off the deep end of late, including being one of only 10 Republicans to vote against a bill that would prohibit hospitals that take federal funding from discriminating against doctors who object to participating in abortions, and one of only 7 Republicans to vote against the ban on federal funding for Planned Parenthood. However, she voted for the Protect Life Act late last year and I would have never pegged her as a “no” vote on such an uncontroversial pro-life bill. She’ll be tough to dislodge under California’s new jungle-primary format, but we should recruit a conservative to run against her in 2014.

But the biggest surprise on the GOP side was the fact that reflexively pro-abortion RINO Judy Biggert (IL-13, now IL-11), who has voted pro-abortion (with very few exceptions) throughout her dozen yearsin congress and had voted in lockstep with Richard Hanna over the past two years, voted in favor of the bill. This is even more surprising given that Biggert will now run in a Democrat-leaning district in which a pro-life voting record wouldn’t be very helpful. Good for Biggert, who’s the only Republican with a shot of winning in that gerrymandered district (and is the GOP nominee in 2012 against ultraliberal Democrat ex-Congressman Bill Foster).

As for the 20 Democrats who voted for the bill, this includes the 13 Democrats with largely pro-life voting records that are a dying breed: Dan Boren (OK-02; he’s retiring, and his district will almost certainly go Republican); Mike McIntyre (NC-07; GOP has a 50% chance of beating him); Heath Shuler (NC-11; he’s retiring, and his district will almost certainly go Republican); Dan Lipinski (IL-03; will win reelection); Jerry Costello (IL-12; retiring, and may well be replaced by conservative Republican Jason Plummer); Collin Peterson (MN-07; will probably win reelection); Joe Donnelly (IN-02; stepping down to run for the Senate, will definitely be replaced by conservative Republican Jackie Walorski); Tim Holden (PA-17; defeated in Dem primary by liberal Democrat, who will win in November); Mark Critz (PA-12; will probably lose to Republican Keith Rothfus this November); Jason Altmire (PA-04; defeated in Dem primary by Mark Critz); Mike Ross (AR-04; he’s retiring, and his district will almost certainly go Republican); Nick Rahall (WV-03; will almost certainy be reelected); and Henry Cuellar (TX-28; he’ll definitely get reelected).

At least 5 of the Democrats that voted for did it mostly due to political opportunism: Jim Matheson (UT-02, now UT-04; facing tough reelection against Republican Mia Love in a largely new district); Larry Kissell (NC-08; running for uphill reelection in new, heavily Republican CD); John Barrow (GA-12; running for uphill reelection in new, heavily Republican CD); Jim Cooper (TN-05; district changed a bit in redistricting, and while a bit more Democrat than before, Cooper’s not taking any chances); and John Garamendi (CA-10, now CA-03; redistricting left him with a much less liberal district, and he feels he has to pretend to be a moderate).

That leaves 2 Democrats who surprised me by voting for the bill despite not having pro-life voting records and not having political reasons to cast such a vote: Stephen Lynch of MA-09 (now MA-08) and Silvestre Reyes of TX-16. Lynch, who is safe in his congressional district, used to vote pro-life quite often, but appeared to have turned pro-abortion more recently (including voting pro-abortion throughout the past two years), so hopefully he’s returning to his principles. As for Reyes, he lost his primary to a more liberal Democrat last week, so I assume that he’s voting his principles. Perhaps he voted pro-abortion with few exceptions all those years because he was afraid of a challenge from the left in his strongly Democrat district.

The most surprising “no” vote on the Dem side was Dale Kildee of MI-05, who used to vote 100% pro-life but apparently is now pro-abortion as he departs Congress (he’s retiring at the end of this term.) A was also disappointed to see Marcy Kaptur of OH-09 vote against it; she’s got a split record on abortion, and I thought that the thought of women aborting babies just because they didn’t was a girl would sicken her and send her to our side.

This bill was a missed opportunity to chip away at Roe v. Wade and force Democrats to face what “the right to choose” really entails. We should remember how people voted on this one.