As the health care reform bill heads for the Senate amid gleeful cheers by Madame Speaker Pelosi, many observers see the Stupak Amendment — it upholds current abortion funding laws, but does not allow expansion of them in the new health care reform bill — as something that could break any easy passage of the bill.

The Stupak Amendment passed in the House 240 to 194, with 64 Democrats voting in favor — the House hasn’t seen this amount of bipartisan cooperation throughout the entire health care bill debate. The Amendment prohibits abortion coverage in the public insurance option and prevents private plans from offering coverage for abortion services if they accept people who are receiving government subsidies. There are exceptions, “where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or unless the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest.”

The Amendment does not make abortion illegal; it does not block the federal government from subsidizing abortions. It preserves the status quo. Those who want abortion coverage would have to purchase such coverage with their own money, not taxpayers'.

This has earned the ire of pro-abort politicians and those inside the abortion industry.  One such pro-abortion politician is Rep. Jan Schakowsky, (D-Ill.), who said it is "ridiculous" to expect women to purchase separate policies. "No one plans an unplanned pregnancy.” Her illogic is astounding.

Nancy Northrup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal group whose focus is securing universal abortion and contraceptive access, said, “Pro-choice supporters in this country are going to be outraged that the anti-choice movement used this important debate over health care to expand anti-choice policies into the private employment sector." Perhaps she’s confused about what constitutes private employment, and a socialistic government health care plan paid for by taxpayers.

In response to the call put out by Catholic Bishops to their flocks to have abortion funding left out of the health care reform bill, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) said, "no religion should drive public policy. We're a democracy, not a theocracy. We cannot cross that line. No religious group should dictate what a law should be."

Of course it’s not a question of religion, regardless of the fact that the Catholic Church took a public stand on the issue. It is a matter of human life and defending that life by not contributing to the killing of babies, making sure taxpayer dollars are not used for abortion funding. Pro-lifer Charmaine Yoest of Americans for Life commented, “Seventy percent of the American people don't want federal dollars going to abortion. That's not a religious question.” It is a moral question. 

As God is the author of all morality, and of all creation, and of all there is, it should be noted that He laid out quite dramatically for those who might have missed it, the rules for living and treating others; Thou Shalt Not Kill could not be more explicit, but nonetheless this is contested by those who want to kill innocents, systematically and routinely, using other people’s money.

The pro-abortion left is going to mount a massive but united campaign to strip the Stupak Amendment language from the Senate Bill. But now that pro-lifers know they can make a difference, they too, will be launching a massive effort to dissuade the pro-abortion advocates. We just learned from this past Saturday’s developments that passing government health care is of the greatest priority for those holding office at the Capitol. Therefore they may be willing to let the amendment stand in the Senate, as they did in the House in order to accomplish what they consider a higher goal.

The Wall Street Journal had this little telling paragraph:

As it is, Democrats now have to make some decisions that may anger their Planned Parenthood wing. The fight itself will be interesting, judging from a claim by Diana DeGette (D., Col.) in yesterday's Washington Post that 40 Democrats will vote against a final bill unless the Stupak amendment is stripped out. Of course, if it is stripped out, that will put even more pressure on those 64 Democrats who voted for the amendment.

The stage is set; let the battle begin.

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rprew said:

... Left unabated, the slaughter of 1.2 million children per year in the United States by abortion, combined with rampant and unashamed sexual perversion, will result in Divine judgement upon this nation. Judgement is imminent, but not inevitable. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. - Jonah 3:5-10 America needs to do do what the people of Nineveh did... repent and beg forgiveness.

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November 11, 2009
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DDW said:

	Innocent blood This nation is DRENCHED with it. Abortion is MURDER of the innocent, defenseless unborn. Isn't it just absolutely amazing that the "liberal" left is completely in favor of murder? It's just too, too bad that millions of them were not aborted.
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November 11, 2009
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Pat Henry said:

Stupak-Pitts amendment good, but can be Trojan It is heartening and important that any health care bill have such restrictions to outright childkilling. But if this makes overall health care palatable to pro-lifers, what a defeat it will be. You see, then, the mess we are in. And it is not just "liberals" or "Demoncrats" that are the enemy. Republicans had a majority in both houses and the Executive for at least 6 years recently, and did nothing to protect innocent blood of preborns. The celebrated "partial birth abortion ban" did not stop one death. And it did more harm than good by recognizing Roe v. Wade as legitimate, a new precedent never before done in the Legislative Branch.

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November 12, 2009
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