LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Sunday, March 21, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Pro-Life Democrats Abandon Stupak But Pro-Abortion Health Bill Lacks Votes
• Stupak Has No Deal to Stop Abortion Funding, Pelosi to Press for Senate Bill Vote
• Democrats Use Obama Executive Order on Abortion Funding to Get Bill Votes
• Democrats' Promise of Executive Order to Stop Abortion Funding a Hollow One
--> ACTION: Contact your member of Congress to oppose the pro-abortion health care bill by going to http://www.House.gov and then tell every pro-life friend and family member to do the same. Urge opposition to the Senate bill, the companion measure and the Slaughter Rule.
Pro-Life Democrats Abandon Stupak But Pro-Abortion Health Bill Lacks Votes
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The number of pro-life Democrats standing with Rep. Bart Stupak against the pro-abortion Senate health care bill has dwindled as Democrats have applied every possible pressure to persuade them to support the measure. With more pro-life Democrats supporting the bill Nancy Pelosi is closer to getting 216 votes.
Stupak told Roll Call his now has only a half dozen pro-life Democrats in his coalition, down from the twelve he has had for weeks who said they would remain firm.
I don't know if it s enough, Stupak said of whether he can deliver enough votes to defeat the Senate bill and its massive abortion funding. There s rumors going back and forth. Last I heard they were short four and that was about an hour ago.
Stupak also told The Hill that he's not seen a lot to reassure him about the executive order idea of having President Barack Obama issue a directive removing the abortion funding from the bill. National Right to Life says the idea wouldn't work anyway.
Stupak told reporters that he has "not seen an executive order" and he was "going to think about" what it would have to include to get his vote.
As Stupak's talks with Pelosi and Democrats have seemingly failed on attempting to find a way to prevent abortion funding, more members have declared their support for the bill.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, who insisted he was concerned about abortion funding, said he would support the bill nonetheless.
And Rep. Christopher Carney of Pennsylvania also decided to endorse the measure and, according to Roll Call, provided a misleading analysis of it, saying it continues the longstanding ban on public funding for abortion, a factor that weighed heavily on my mind in recent days. Full story at LifeNews.com
--> ACTION: Contact your member of Congress to oppose the pro-abortion health care bill by going to http://www.House.gov and then tell every pro-life friend and family member to do the same.
Stupak Has No Deal to Stop Abortion Funding, Pelosi to Press for Senate Bill Vote
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- It appears Rep. Bart Stupak has no deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a last-minute attempt to stop the massive abortion funding in the Senate health care bill. As a result, Pelosi is moving forward with a Sunday vote on the bill and is meeting today with top lieutenants to see if she has enough votes.
Stupak told Roll Call that Pelosi backed out of any potential deal and says he still doesn't think Pelosi has the votes.
If they re done talking, they re done talking. Then report that she broke it off, he said. I ve done all the proposals. I ve laid out procedures, and I know of no other way. So if they want our votes, they have to work with us. We re missing a discussion.
According to The Hill, Pelosi made it clear at mid-day today that there will be "no separate votes" on any single issue, including abortion funding.
Conversations are reportedly still ongoing and there may be some attempt to accommodate Stupak and his coalition of pro-life Democrats, but Pelosi appears to be ready to see if she has enough votes for Sunday afternoon.
House Republican Leader John Boenher says she doesn't and several different whip counts say she would need all of about 12 undecided members and a few of the Stupak group to get to the 216 votes needed for the bill. The numbers make it appear Pelosi is about 10 votes away form that magic number.
Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois told PRI radio that, "There's still time" for Pelosi to change her mind about a deal and that "they still need the votes."
But pro-abortion Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky says there will be "no vote" on a Stupak deal.
"There's not going to be any deal made with Mr. Stupak...there's been no deal whatsoever. He's been told that his language is not going to be added to the legislation," she told TPM. "We think we have the votes regardless, and we're going to be moving forward. Yes. We do think we have the votes without him." Full story at LifeNews.com
Democrats Use Obama Executive Order on Abortion Funding to Get Bill Votes
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Apparently unable to find enough votes for the pro-abortion Senate health care bill and with talks breaking down on how to allow Rep. Bart Stupak a vote on some sort of motion or bill to stop abortion funding, Democrats appear to be relying on a potential executive order to corral more votes for the bill.
The idea is to promise an executive order from President Barack Obama to stop the massive abortion funding and promotion in the Senate measure.
The goal is to pacify Stupak and a coalition of pro-life Democrats threatening to vote against the Senate bill without abortion funding removed.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters at mid-day today, according to the Daily Caller that he can't promise an executive order will be issued but said one is under discussion.
The intent is obviously to express what we have said all along, that we believe the language that has been included in both bills seeks to accomplish, and that is that there will no use of public funds for abortion, he said.
Pelosi herself commented on the idea. "An executive order is a different thing. That might be a possibility," she said according to a conversation Politico overhead.
Leading pro-life advocates say an executive order is a non-starter because it can't fix themyriad of pro-abortion problems with the bill.
"It should be noted that all of the problems listed in the NRLC letter -- with the possible exception of no. 5 (pro-abortion administrative mandates) -- would be created by and controlled by the proposed statutory language of H.R. 3590," Douglas Johnsn of National Right to Life told LifeNews.com. "If the bill is signed into law, these statutory requirements and defects are not subject to correction or nullification by the chief executive or his appointees, whether by Executive Order, regulation, or otherwise." Full story at LifeNews.com
Democrats' Promise of Executive Order to Stop Abortion Funding a Hollow One
by Tom McClusky
There is rumor circulating on Capitol hill (ok there are tons of rumors but I'll deal with this one) that the President will sign an Executive Order that would remove abortion funding from the Senate health care bill the House is scheduled. Here is the draft of a letter we are sending to Hill offices. to note also, any Order he issues, he can just as easily take away with the stroke of his pen.
Dear Representative:
On behalf of FRCAction, the legislative arm of Family Research Council, and the families we represent, we want to take this opportunity to warn you off any rumored last minute schemes or promises to issue an Executive Order (EO) that would magically fix the fact that the Senate bill (H.R. 3590) would spend government funds to pay for elective abortions.
Further, the Reconciliation bill 4872) will make matters worse by increasing funding for community health centers, which will bypass any abortion funding restrictions in appropriations bills because it is directly appropriated. Both taken together will fund abortion, regardless of any EO.
President Obama and the Democratic leadership know that such a plan, due to legal precedent, would be worth little in the long run.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the President for finally admitting that H.R. 3590 would lead to taxpayer funding of abortions (as we detailed in our score letter sent previously that can be found here http://downloads.frcaction.org/EF/EF10C07.pdf as well as a chart comparing the Stupak-Pitts amendment language in the original House passed bill vs. abortion language in H.R. 3590. This chart can be found here http://downloads.frcaction.org/EF/EF10C08.pdf).
If the Obama Administration continued to falsely believe the Senate bill had no problem on the issue of funding abortion and funding health plans that include abortion, he certainly would not put forth the idea of an EO.
Because of an EO would give no protections to the unborn when it comes to funding for abortion in the Senate bill, and abortion funding remains in these bills, FRCAction will still plan to score both the vote on both the Senate bill and on the Reconciliation bill in our scorecard for the Second Session of the 111th Congress. Full story at LifeNews.com
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