Yesterday, a man who had spent months appealing to his colleagues on principle compromised his morals and integrity for his party. Like watching a lopsided boxing match, it was embarrassing to see Bart Stupak (D-MI) defeated and hunched over,
attacking his own amendment and former pro-life allies in a statement which had obviously been prepared by Nancy Pelosi as retribution for his earlier defiance:
Thank you. The motion to recommit purports to be a right to life motion in the spirit of the Stupak Amendment. But as the author of the Stupak Amendment, this motion is nothing more than the opportunity to deny 32 million Americans healthcare. The motion is really a last-ditch effort of 98 years of denying Americans healthcare.
The motion to recommit does not promote life: it is the Democrats who have stood up for the principle of no public funding for abortions. It is Democrats, through the President’s executive order that ensures the sanctity of life is protected, because all life is precious, and all life should be honored. Democrats guarantee that all life, from the unborn to the last breath of a senior citizen is honored and respected. For the unborn child, his or her mother will finally have free, post-natal care under our bill. If the child is born with medical problems, we provide medical care without bankrupting the family.
For the Republicans who now claim that we send the bill back to committee, under the guise of protecting life, is disingenuous. This motion is really to politicize life, not prioritize life. We stand for the American people; we stand up for life. Vote no on this motion to recommit.
In return for this humiliation, Stupak won nothing more than an executive order, which is not legally binding and can be repealed by President Obama at any time. Worse, the executive order (which had not yet been signed as of this morning) only
reiterates the same language from the Senate bill, which consists of an appeal, not to the sanctity of life, but to generally accepted accounting practices:
The Act also imposes strict payment and accounting requirements to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services in exchange plans (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) and requires state health insurance commissioners to ensure that exchange plan funds are segregated by insurance companies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, OMB funds management circulars, and accounting guidance provided by the Government Accountability Office.
Nowhere does the executive order even use the phrase "sanctity of life." Rather, for the Democrats, the value of a human life is nothing more than an equation in an accounting ledger.
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