PelosiCare Could Have Been Aborted In The House By Killing the Anti-Abortion Amendment

On the day of the vote on PelosiCare in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Democratic Leadership was at least 10 votes short of passing the bill because anti-abortion Members could not accept the prospect of government-funded abortions.  Thus, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi allowed a vote on the Stupak Amendment, which provided anti-abortion Members a political fig leaf to hide behind even though as a matter of fact the amendment would be ineffective in preventing government-funded and assisted abortion once a government-run healthcare system is in place. 

It is unambiguously clear that it was passage of the Stupak, anti-abortion amendment that allowed PelosiCare to pass the House.  Had House opponents of PelosiCare had their strategic wits about them, they would have voted “present” on the Stupak Amendment, and it would have failed, thus taking down the entire Pelosi bill with it. 

Defeating the entire Pelosi health bill by voting “present,” and hence defeating the Stupak Amendment would have been a far more effective way to prevent government-subsidized abortions than tacitly endorsing government-run healthcare by supporting a supposed prohibition on government-supported abortion that will be totally ineffective once a government-run healthcare system is in place.  No legislative language will succeed in preventing bureaucrats, politicians and judges from finding a way to support abortions once the government takes over healthcare.

By supporting the Stupak fig leaf, anti-abortion forces snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on PelosiCare.  That is what happens when single-issue politics run by Washington-based organizations strong arm Members of Congress. Four of the five leading anti-abortion organizations all issued conditional key-vote letters indicating they would score the vote on final passage of the Pelosi bill only if the Stupak Amendment was not adopted.  In other words, these four groups told Members of Congress they would give them a free pass to vote “yea” on a government takeover of healthcare as long as it contained the anti-abortion fig leaf.  Read the organizations’ letters: Family Research Council, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Americans United for Life, and National Right to Life Committee. 

Instead of voting strategically on the Stupak Amendment, the entire Republican Party, save John Shadegg (AZ), allowed the single-issue, anti-abortion lobby to bully them into voting “yea” rather than “present” on the amendment.  In the process, the anti-abortion lobby greased the skids for PelosiCare to pass.

Here is how Rush Limbaugh explained how anti-abortion lobby and cowardly Republicans sold out allies in fight against PelosiCare:

“I gotta tell you something here, folks. That Stupak amendment? I don't want to ever hear anybody tell me again that Nancy Pelosi's stupid.  She pulled a giant trick on pro-life Republicans and Democrats. Single-issue politics came roaring to the top here, and when she put in the Stupak amendment that convinced pro-lifers, ‘Hey, hey! Abortion is not going to be funded. We gotta vote for it,’ it was silly.  I guess now we should all get behind this bill because of this?  Well, that's what they're telling us.  I mean, for crying out loud!  One of my concerns, ladies and gentlemen, always was: You put abortion in it and forces will rally.  Then you pretend to take it out, and those people suddenly think they have to be for a bill.  This abortion stuff, I just scratch my head.  Okay, so we've been fooled. The House has been fooled into thinking that abortions are not going to be federally funded under health care.  But, for crying out loud, when you look at the rest of the bill, it's about nothing but death.  It's about the death of the living. 

“This is the most profoundly anti-life-at-all-ages piece of legislation that has ever passed the US House of Representatives.  I mean, it's anti-life depending on your age, depending on the severity of your illness, depending on your party affiliation probably, depending on a whole lot of things. It is anti-freedom, and without that you're not going to have a pro-life movement at all.  And of course abortion funding is going to get back in there. It boggles the mind.  It boggles the mind.  It was a bad move.  This bill is going to harm everybody.  It is going to endanger the very ill and the elderly -- and nothing is going to stop Pelosi from going back in there after they get this law and changing that language in a year or two or three.  Kill the bill because it's bad for human beings.  It's bad for fetuses. It's bad for human beings. You kill the bill! But now I guess we're supposed to get behind the bill because it's got this Stupak pro-life thing in it?”  (Read entire transcript.)

It’s not like the Democratic Leadership slipped one past the Republican Conference.  Some folks inside Washington understood full well what was coming down when House Speaker Pelosi provided anti-abortion Members this fig leaf to hide behind.  They pointed out to Members urgently that:  i)  The amendment would not actually prevent abortions in a government-run health system; ii) Even if it were effective (especially if it were effective), it would never survive a conference committee with the Senate (confirmed here); and iii) Without the Stupak fig leaf, the Pelosi bill could not pass the House (confirmed here). 

Consequently, urgent memos went out before the vote on the amendment urging all opponents of PelosiCare to vote “present” on the amendment, which would cause it to fail.  Instead, the Stupid Party allowed itself to be bullied into voting against it’s own interests.  One can only hope Senate Republicans learned the lesson:  It was the Stupak Amendment, Stupid.