1. The Director of NIH is not a cabinet-level position. NIH is ONE of the agencies in the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
2. President Bush's nominee to head NIH wasn't confirmed until early May 2002, and at the time this grant was approved, an acting director appointed by Clinton was still in office.
3. Your name-calling in #231 above doesn't help your argument any.
1. It seems that GWB could've tried to stop this financing, and if he's brought to court about it, so be it.
2. If the President wanted to do something for his pro-life supporters, he could've pushed the Republicans in Senate to pass a ban on Partial Birth Abortion. We were always told there was no point in it while Clinton was in office.
3. I was shocked after the election when Laura Bush in an interview on TV supported Roe vs. Wade. With two attractive girls going away to college, it didn't seem like a message most parents would convey.
4. GWB was already on shaky ground with pro-lifers because of that bill he signed "by mistake" honoring an abortionist and for giving a Cabinet post to Chrissie Whitman, who vetoed anti-PBA abortion legislation.
5. One of Bush's primary arguments to the Conservatives against McCain was that McCain would be soft on abortion restrictions...that only Bush would support Conservative views.
I just don't see where anyone in the Bush family has done anything to outlaw or discourage abortion.
This is how the federal government works. Every agency of the different cabinet departments gets a spending budget. In this case HHS earmarks a certain budget for NIH. At the time the budget is done, it specifies how much money is available for what kind of project. President Bush could have told Secretary Thompson, that he will not allocate any money for embryonic stem-cell research if the cells come from aborted tissues. Under this fictitous law, a President cannot cut off funding, but it does not say that a President must fund. If this kind of funding has been going on for years, then there is no point of this Sunday front page article. Obviously, this is something new, which the President could have avoided during the budget process.
If the President was really serious about this issue, he could have gone to the local circuit court and ask for an injunction. He didn't, and that proves that he is indifferent in this matter.