I've been writing today (here and here) about the controversy surrounding the discovery that MD, NM, and PA had planned to use federal funds received for their Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans via Obamacare for abortions until National Right to Life exposed them.

According to ABC News, a spokesperson for the PA Insurance Dept. said the abortion funding language in its PCIP "was just 'a placeholder' and that 'the bottom line is we will abide by all federal regulations....'"

Sure.

Kristen Day, head of Democrats for Life, forwarded me her group's statement, adding, "People may not like my response but here it is"...

I wrote earlier today that, much to the dismay of pro-aborts, Pennsylvania and New Mexico are being forced to revise their Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans to scratch federal funding of abortions via Obamacare after the National Right to Life Committee blew the whistle.

Now add Maryland. Credit for the following information goes to Doug Johnson of NRLC.

In a July 7 press release, MD Gov. Martin O'Malley announced that a state government entity, the MD Health Insurance Plan, would administer the new federal PCIP program in MD....

On July 13 the pro-life world went ballistic after the National Right to Life Committee revealed that the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan DHHS had approved for PA included federal funding for abortion.

Backing up, per Obamacare, every state must either create its own PCIP, aka "high risk pool," or implement the federal PCIP, to provide temporary health insurance people who do not presently qualify for individual health insurance due to a preexisting condition....

UPDATE, 7/15, 11:25a: The House Republican's #2, Eric Cantor, also issued a statement yesterday condemning Obamacare's inclusion of abortion funding in the PA "high risk" plan:

In the months leading up to Democrat passage of ObamaCare, we fought hard to ensure that no federal funding would be used to subsidize elective abortion. Unfortunately, in the last days of this fight, a group of so-called "pro-life" Democrats who had previously withheld their support from the bill in the name of life accepted an offer from the White House, which pretended to bar funding of abortion under the new structure....

UPDATE, 7/8, 7:38a: The Weekly Standard has a related article in its July 5-12 issue entitled, "Endangered Species: Do pro-life Democrats have a future?"

7/7, 4:20p: All pro-life groups agreed that the healthcare bill ratified in March allowed public funded abortions - except one, Democrats for Life, which praised its passage....

Yesterday the ACLU issued a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking it to investigate religious hospitals that refuse to provide emergency "reproductive health care." CMS is a branch of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, which is directed by pro-abort Kathleen Sebelius....

Yesterday TX pro-life Republican Congressman Pete Olson (pictured at podium, right) held a press conference flanked by pro-life Congress stalwarts [Reps. Chris Smith (NJ), Paul Broun, M.D. (GA), Mary Fallin (OK), John Fleming, M.D. (LA), Trent Franks (AZ), Walter Jones (NC), Jim Jordan (OH), Joe Pitts (PA), Steve Scalise (LA), and Jean Schmidt (OH)], Lila Rose of Live Action; Ken Blackwell of Family Research Council, and Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America to announce the results of a Government Accountability Office audit detailing federal taxpayer dollars given to groups that advocate and/or commit abortions.

The audit was requested by 31 Republican lawmakers.

There is some discrepancy whether the final figure over the course of 7 years was "almost $1 billion in taxpayer dollars," as even Olsen wrote in his press statement, or over $1 billion. It's over. Here is the exact tally...

Yesterday behind closed doors pro-abort US Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL, who took Obama's place) offered an amendment in the Senate Armed Services Committee to strike a 14-yr-old ban against privately funded abortions at both domestic and overseas military facilities.

The ban has been in place since Congress overturned President Clinton's 1993 authorization in 1996. Public funded abortions at military facilities have been banned since 1979 except in the cases or rape, incest, or when a mother's life is in danger....

Former pro-life golden boy Congressman Bart Stupak wrote an op ed for the May 6 issue of Newsweek entitled, "Health Care Hell."

I was surprised to hear from Stupak. The healthcare debate is over. Done. Finito. And he should know because he's the one who ended it.

I wondered what more could Stupak possibly have to say, and why would he feel the need to say it?

Stupak had already told the world what he claims to have been thinking when agreeing to Obama's executive order, which enabled passage of a House healthcare bill that included public funded abortions. We disagree with all his points....

On March 21 purported pro-life Democrat Rep. Alan Mollohan of WV ignored the wishes of the pro-life community and voted for the healthcare bill sans the Stupak Amendment.

And yesterday Mollohan lost his bid for a 15th term to his more conservative opponent, state Sen. Mike Oliverio. According to the Wall Street Journal today...

by Carder

On May 5 candidates Mark Critz (D, pictured above left) and Tim Burns (R, pictured above right) engaged in a debate for the upcoming special election for PA's 12th congressional district, the seat formerly held by the late Congressman John Murtha....

by Carder

Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life presented House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner the 2010 Henry Hyde Defender of Life Award yesterday.

Robert Stacy McCain of the blog The Other McCain posted video footage of Boehner's brief acceptance speech. (McCain is 1 of those bloggers who prefers being in the middle of an event and blogs as they unfold. Which provides plenty of amusing moments, as you'll see if scrolling through this post's photos.)

Boehner shared recollections of his early days in DC and the friendship he forged with Hyde, whom Boehner considers one of his heroes.

Boehner choked up a few times, first when talking about Hyde and then when talking about his 11 siblings. Yes, 11. Video on page 2...

Okaaaay. Someone just forwarded me a link to the following March 25 piece by Kristen Day, president of Democrats for Life of America, still up on its home page.

I think the timing of my receipt of Kristen's post is good because of the Politico article I just posted, which basically corroborates that the problem isn't with pro-life groups, the problem is with the Democrat Party and Democrat pro-lifers.

Kristen Day is my friend. I appreciate the extremely hard job she has undertaken for years now to attempt to remake the Democrat Party into a life-friendly group. I know Kristen has experienced several disappointments and not too many victories.

I also acknowledge it is widely thought in pro-life circles that National Right to Life is an arm of the Republican Party. I expect Kristen threw LifeNews.com into the mix because she considers it an NRLC mouthpiece.

All that said, I think Kristen's anger in this case is misdirected and not helpful....

Also read my previous post, "Pro-life groups turn on pro-life Democrats."

Spot-on piece by W. James Antle III in Politico today. Antle's point is that the Democrat Party's attempt to woo conservatives to run for Congress has backfired - on Democrats. I can't see pro-life groups trusting any unproven pro-life Democrats for a long, long time, if ever. This means pro-life candidates Democrats try to run in conservative districts won't win next go-around....

After being at the center of one of the nation's most polarizing political debates in more than a year, it was not so surprising that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) announced his retirement.

But Stupak isn't just another Democrat declining to run for reelection this fall. Circumstances leading to his departure could signal the end of the anti-abortion Democrat as a potent political force....

When it comes down to it, Bart Stupak retired today because his pro-abort House leaders and president wouldn't let him and his pro-life band vote their consciences....

UPDATE, 7:53a: More from the Associated Press:

But Stupak tells the AP the attacks didn't influence his decision and he could win re-election if he tried.

He plans to announce his decision at a 12:30 p.m. news conference at Northern MI University in Marquette....

A tweet from Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards yesterday:

Here's the article Richards was linking to, by TheBody.com, April 5:

CDC on Thursday announced the expansion of an initiative through which more than 1.4 million Americans have been tested for HIV. During the next 3 years, funding for the effort will increase by approximately $31.5 million, and a total of $142.5 million will be awarded to state and local health departments in eligible jurisdictions to increase HIV testing in health care and non-health care settings.

Here's why Richards thought that news noteworthy (click to enlarge)...

In recent days I've received fundraising emails from NARAL and Planned Parenthood aimed at getting Bart Stupak out of office. Meanwhile, according to MSNBC today:

[T]here is still a concern that some important incumbents in districts that they are uniquely suited could call it quits.

At the top of the concern list this week: MI Democrat Bart Stupak... said to be simply exhausted. The criticism he received - 1st from the left, and then from the right - has worn him and his family out. And if he had to make the decision now, he'd probably NOT run.

As of this writing, a bunch of senior Democrats (many of the same ones who twisted his arm on the health care vote) are trying to talk him into running....

(Click above to enlarge.)

Planned Parenthood would like pro-aborts to thank Democrat House members who voted for passage of the pro-abortion healthcare plan.

On PP's list of representatives to thank are the following professed pro-lifers...

John Kass is Chicago's most beloved columnist if you're conservative and anti-corruption and most hated columnist if you're liberal and part of the Democrat machine.

Kass's Chicago Tribune piece today was on Congressman Dan Lipinski, the only member of Bart Stupak's bloc of pro-life votes who stayed strong and voted against the healthcare bill in the House a week ago tonight.

Lots of money lines. Here's one: "People have asked me, 'If it was good enough for Stupak, why wasn't it good enough for you?'" Lipinski said. "The executive order most likely will be overturned by the federal courts. The order does not trump the law."...

Twice the last 3 days I've heard Bart Stupak claim, as he did on Greta Van Susteren's show last night:

Van Susteren: Both sides - both sides think that - my word - you're the villain.

Stupak: Yes. Well, that - I guess that must mean I did a good job, I got both sides mad at me. That means - that means I got good legislation....

Well, no. Pro-aborts have always disliked Stupak. But had he stuck to his guns, they would have been the only ones. Stupak's flip also drew the wrath of pro-lifers....

Others like Rush Limbaugh, Newsbusters, and Fox have picked up on a prime example of the biased MSM and Democrat coverage of violence over the healthcare battle: Bart Stupak.

Stupak may have complained of threats by pro-aborts before he turned coat, but he only publicized the threats received by portended pro-lifers after. And this is only when MSM and libs picked up on them.

I like how Bernie Goldberg framed what's going on: Portraying pro-lifers and conservatives as violent and racist fits the other side's narrative.

That said, there is something more afoot.

Erick Erickson at RedState.com wrote yesterday...

UPDATE, 11:47a: Eric Cantor press conference:

11:38a: Republican House Whip Eric Cantor just held a press conference accusing House Democrats of fomenting violence by releasing threatening communiques received....

Good news comes this morning that during the wee hours Senate Republicans were successful in finding 2 parliamentary problems that will force the House to revote on the healthcare bill. Keep what they did in the public eye. (These were 2 provisions in the reconciliation bill dealing with Pell Grants that violated the Byrd Rule. They will be stricken out.)

Before that Senate Democrats voted down 29 Republican amendments in an attempt to keep the House version pure so this wouldn't have to happen. Some of those votes will come back to bite Dems during election season, such as voting against an amendment to ban coverage of Viagra to convicted sex offenders.

Moving on, here's a very nice photo of President Obama surrounded by Democrat pro-life traitors watching him sign his pseudo pro-life executive order yesterday....

And a USA Today piece reported today both sides of the abortion issue were "quick to dismiss" it...

From the Washington Times, March 23:

Bart Stupak: ... I've done all I could as one member to protect the sanctity of life.

Reporter Kelly Picket: Then how come you didn't vote for Pence's amendment to de-fund Planned Parenthood back in 2009

Bart Stupak: I don't think I ever voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood. PP does not do abortions... in my district. PP has a number of clinics in my district that provide health care for my people....

Bravo. From a press release:

On Wednesday, March 24, the Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee notified U.S. Representative Bart Stupak that his endorsement was rescinded. In a letter sent to Rep. Stupak, the RLM-PAC qualified how the endorsement criteria was no longer met....

From the Washington Times this morning:

A day after a lavish bill signing White House ceremony on health care reform, President Obama will sign an executive order barring the law from allowing federally funded abortion, but he'll do so behind closed doors and with no media allowed....

Every now and then a pile of good reads stacks up, and I aggregate them, not having enough time to compile them into posts. Here's one of those times. TMI! So here you go...

I was on a conference call with Congressman Randy Neugebauer a little while ago. He's the one who shouted, "It's a baby killer" Sunday night during Bart Stupak's speech imploring his members to oppose the Stupak Amendment (yes, that's right).

Congressman Neugebauer needs our help. The Left is calling for him to apologize on the House floor, and he is adamantly indicating he's not going to.

"For what?" he just said during the call. "I called this healthcare bill exactly what it is. I'm not ashamed of what I said because what I said was the truth. I won't apologize for doing the right thing. I'm not gonna do it. When did it become wrong to speak out for the unborn, the group that has no voice unless we stand up for their rights? I'll apologize when they repeal this bill."...

Bart Stupak is the new Democrat Party It Guy. Roll Call reported this morning...

UPDATE, 3/22, 5:54p: Lol, "baby killer" is an "anti-choice slur"...

UPDATE, 3/22, 1:19p: And the "baby killer" utterer is... Republican TX Rep. Randy Neugebauer. His statement...

Noteworthy...

Now it all comes out. It didn't take long for Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards to revel in PP's financial gain from passage of healthcare in a Planned Parenthood statement just released. Note also Richards' dismissal of Obama's executive order....

In IL politics nothing is as it seems, and a vote is rarely cast for the merits of the bill. That's my baseline.

I'm not accusing Bart Stupak of anything. Congresspersons may get grants all the time. But from my experience, you never know. Just passing along this information for balance. There's always stuff going under the surface in politics.

From Congressman Bart Stupak, March 19...

UPDATE, 11:50p: Stupak doesn't need no stinkin' award. From CNN:

Rep. Stupak spoke with CNN Sunday night about the decision of the Susan B. Anthony List. "I didn't seek the award," Stupak told CNN, "I stood on my principle. I don't need an award."

Favor can sure change on a dime. From pro-life hero 1 day to "baby killer" the next. So sad. Stupak blew such an amazing historical opportunity to be an abortion game changer....

UPDATE, 5:56p:

From DC House insider:

The Executive Order does not apply the principles of the Hyde amendment. Instead it reiterates the Senate language that allows subsidies for insurance policies that cover abortion by collecting a special abortion fee from every person who enrolls in a plan that covers abortion. This approach is contrary to the clear language of the Hyde amendment which states, no taxpayer funds "shall be expended for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion."

Peggy Noonan wrote this in her most recent Wall Street Journal column:

And so it ends, with a health-care vote expected this weekend. I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn't worth it - worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide. What has been lost is so vivid, what has been gained so amorphous, blurry and likely illusory. Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill....

Yeah, but she's on our side.

So what does it mean when a friendly, the Washington Post, comes to the same conclusion? From a piece, today...

UPDATE, 3/21, 8:15a: A Human Events piece, "GOP House Whip: Executive order can't override abortion law," mentions there is Supreme Court precedent to back that up. It also includes statements from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Right to Life, Americans United for Life, and the Family Research Council. Bart Stupak previously said he took advice on healthcare from these groups. We shall see....

From The Hill, 3:43p EST:

... Stupak says that "at least 6" of his original "dozen" members are standing firmly against the Senate healthcare bill.

Following a 20-minute huddle on the House floor with a handful of the holdouts, Stupak told reporters that he has "not seen an executive order" that would have President Barack Obama ensure that federal funds would not go toward abortions so would not rule out supporting it....

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) confirmed Stupak's whip count of at least six holdouts....

Good news. They can't hide from their votes. From the Washington Post:

The House Rules Committee continued its session on the 3rd floor of the Capitol, where the panel is tasked with setting the terms of Sunday's floor debate. House leaders have decided to take a separate vote on the Senate version of the health care bill, rejecting an earlier, much-criticized strategy that would have permitted them to "deem" the measure passed without an explicit vote....

Got this press release yesterday:

Today the Susan B. Anthony List launched a $250k television advertisement campaign aimed at pricking the consciences of self-professed pro-life Democrats to live up to the title they have embraced.

The ad exhorts these members to vote "No" on the healthcare bill which includes federal funding of abortion, fails to protect consciences, and creates numerous abortion mandates....

SBA is initially targeting 6 pro-life Democrats who play a key role as the vote scheduled for Sunday approaches: Reps. Jason Altmire (PA-4), Chris Carney (PA-10), Brad Ellsworth (IN-8), Baron Hill (IN-9), Alan Mollohan (WV-1) and Paul Kanjorski (PA-11)....

It would be nice to know this isn't a 1-way attempt to peel votes. Do we have any from our side working the Democrat members?

From FireDogLake.com...

So if you do that, you have 201 202 sure Yes votes, and 206 sure No votes (which includes all Republicans and 28 Democrats who have announced their intention to oppose). 13 12 members are still completely undecided. 4 who voted No last time...

UPDATE, 9:37: UPDATE, 10:08a: The Associated Press is reporting there will be "no deal" on abortion:

A top House Democrat says party leaders are unlikely to cut a deal with abortion opponents to pass President Barack Obama's health care overhaul....

First, from Kathryn Lopez at National Review Online this morning:

This Is what the White House and Nancy Pelosi are hearing in their left ear. From the abortion lobby.... NARAL president issues the following statement...

If you haven't yet grabbed your 1st cup of coffee this morning, you won't need it after viewing the following 1:34 clip from a news conference House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held yesterday.

For starters, it is verboten to interject religion into politics - unless you're a Democrat trying to pass pro-abort legislation. At this beginning of this little political homily Pelosi name-drops St. Joseph and at the end, supportive liberal nuns.

The Catholic saint from whom Pelosi invokes help is ironically Joseph, Jesus's adoptive father, who accepted Mary as his betrothed during her crisis pregnancy as an unwed teen and raised Jesus as his own son....

Lots of whip counts out there. I'm sticking with FireDogLake.com. A couple other sources say Pelosi has her 216, but she wouldn't be talking to Bart Stupak (see below) if that were true. Remember, whichever side gets to 216 wins...

An FDL add-on:

We'll certainly know in the morning, but Nancy Pelosi is fast running out of options without members of the ubiquitous Stupak bloc...

CNN picks up the story from there, reporting tonight...

I'm not getting worked up about this - unless Bart Stupak has lost control of his pro-life band of brothers, in which case they might do something stupid, as The Hill article below suggests some might.

Even if talks are indeed ongoing, affirmation should hinge on a promise (surely written) from a majority of Democrat senators - many of whom are virulent pro-aborts - to replace the current pseudo-pro-life Nelson Amendment with the original Nelson-Hatch Amendment (which was identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment) in the House-passed Senate version of Obamacare....

I recently spotlighted a hardcore pro-lifer I admire who "doesn't take crap," as I indiscreetly put it.

Well, here's another one: Dr. Tom Coburn, US Senator from OK.

Senator Coburn made quite a bit of news yesterday for a 49 second speech warning any House Democrats thinking of selling their vote for either an appointed position should they lose their election or a pork deal for their district to think again.

The reason this made so much news is because everyone knows he means it. Here's the speech...

From FireDogLake.com...

From a Roll Call article tonight entitled, "Setbacks zero out gains in whip count"...

UPDATE, 3/19, 8:27a: The USCCB issued this statement yesterday:

A recent letter from Network, a social justice lobby of sisters, grossly overstated whom they represent in a letter to Congress that was also released to media.

Network's letter, about health care reform, was signed by a few dozen people, and despite what Network said, they do not come anywhere near representing 59,000 American sisters.

The letter had 55 signatories, some individuals, some groups of 3 to 5 persons. One endorser signed twice....

UPDATE, 3:10p: From The Hill: "Top Blue Dog: Slaughter solution is 'poison.'"

And when on his show today Rush Limbaugh read the following Wall Street Journal column by Fred Barnes, I immediately thought of the 37-and-counting-year battle over Roe v. Wade:

America will be in a constant health-care war if ObamaCare is enacted. Passage wouldn't end the health-care debate. Rather, it would perpetuate ObamaCare as the dominant issue for decades to come, reshape politics, create an annual funding crisis in Congress, and generate a spate of angry lawsuits. Yet few in Washington seem aware of what lies ahead....

Bear 1 thing in mind as a prologue to this post. All 3 of the following congressmen voted "yes" for Obamacare in the House in November. Their defections result in no net whip count gain for Pelosi.

Recall that Planned Parenthood endorses the Senate healthcare bill with "fixes" to Ben Nelson's supposed pro-life amendment (and recall Nelson disallowed the National Right to Life Committee from analyzing it), while it outright rejects the House's healthcare bill with the authentic pro-life Stupak Amendment.

And recall the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, NRLC, Democrats for Life, and every other pro-life/pro-family group out there opposes the Senate healthcare bill because it forces public funding of abortion.

Nevertheless, "pro-life" Democrat Dale Kildee of MI determined to side with PP and determine we're all wrong, after laughably conferring with Nelson, whose reputation and political future hinge on his amendment. Quoting his statement from the New York Times...

I was out-of-pocket for Bret Baier's interview with President Obama last night and just viewed it.

As usual, my physical reaction to having to watch Obama was a set jaw, pounding heart, and increased blood pressure. Ironic, considering the topic at hand, that Obama is bad for my health.

But thank goodness for Baier, who finally won me over after months of my pining for Brit Hume at 5p every night, who Baier replaced as anchor of Fox News Special Report after the November election....

The following 2 pieces, 1 by a liberal and 1 by MSM, show the importance of contacting your representative. Did it Monday or Tuesday? Do it again today. Call, fax, Twitter, and email.

From David Dayen at FireDogLake.com, a liberal, you'll recall:

Dennis Kucinich's reversal and decision to support the health care bill changes the dynamic around the vote, but the ultimate question of whether or not the bill will pass was always going to be decided by the right flank of the caucus.

Adding in Kucinich's support, and Ann Kirkpatrick's, to the last whip count puts the number at 193 yes, 205 no, and 208-208 with leaners. That leaves Democrats needing 8 of the final 15 uncommitted votes to come through. The group includes 5 who voted no last time, and 10 who voted yes. So theoretically, if nobody flips to no, the Democrats have the votes. Here are the final 15...

Continue reading "Latest whip count, including Kucinich"

Philip Klein in the America Spectator postulated yesterday another reason for the House delay in advancing a vote on healthcare, aside from garnering 216 ayes, is a poor CBO score:

As Democrats have delayed releasing their final health care reconciliation bill, they've consistently tried to create the impression that they're essentially finished, but are merely waiting on the Congressional Budget Office....

Yet the delay in releasing the bill and CBO score (which was initially supposed to come out as early as last week) has suggested something else - that early estimates from the CBO were bad, and they're making changes to get the score that they want.

Klein spotted corroboration in a CQ Politics piece...

Here's amazing news. Did you know the Stupak Amendment in the House's healthcare bill actually bans private insurance companies from covering abortion?

That's what Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards claimed in an email today:

Now that Congressional leaders and the White House are pushing for a final vote on health care reform, Congressman Bart Stupak and his allies - including the National Conference of Catholic Bishops - are threatening to bring down the entire bill unless it eliminates private health insurance coverage for abortion.

Richards doesn't like the Senate's Nelson Amendment either but says she'll tolerate it for now, just pass the bill in the House... additional corroboration not to:

It's time for Congress to put an end to this anti-choice push and focus on what matters most: extending health care coverage to the millions of Americans who are cut out of our current system. Tell Congress: Pass health care reform. Say no to any anti-choice side deals with Bart Stupak, and fix the Nelson amendment. Say no to any new restrictions on abortion.

Richards linked in her email to a disturbing video....

1st, Erick Erickson at RedState.com is reporting on Twitter that Rush Limbaugh has given out the Capitol switchboard number for only the 2nd time in his broadcasting history: 202-224-3121. Make your calls. The situation is urgent.

2nd, jumping ahead a little, Michelle Malkin is reporting the GOP "will announce this morning a plan to force a vote this week on a resolution that would require the Senate health care bill to be brought to an actual up-or-down vote.... If passed by the House, the resolution would prohibit Speaker Pelosi from implementing the 'Slaughter Solution,' the scheme by which House Democratic leaders are seeking to 'deem' the Senate bill as passed without an actual vote in the House."

Backing up, for a detailed explanation of pro-abort Democrat Louise Slaughter's proposed end run around an outright vote in the House on the Senate's healthcare bill, read this Wall Street Journal piece today....

UDPATE, 12:17p: Latest whip count from FireDogLake.com...

10:58a: From Politico last night:

Rep. Jason Altmire, a PA Democrat who has positioned himself as a key swing vote, said he thinks leadership is seriously struggling to marshal the votes.

"They're calling the hardnosed people... who have put out firm statements saying no," he said. "They wouldn't be doing that if they were anywhere close."

From The Hill last night:

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) said Monday he thinks House Democratic leaders are not close to having the votes to pass health reform....

Before I get to Schieffer, here's the latest whip count from FireDogLake.com...

This means the best case scenario at this point has Pelosi with 204 votes, which means she has to peel 12 votes from the "no" side to get to the magic 216.

Moving on, CBS's Bob Schieffer said this morning on The Early Show it "may take waterboarding" for Democrats to get the votes they need for Obamacare...

Just up from CatholicVote.org... priceless...

[HT: moderator Carder]

Gag, puke, gag.

Associated Press caption with this photo...

UPDATE, 4p: Per National Review Online, about 30 minutes ago:

In a press conference on Capitol Hill today, Rep. David Dreier (R., CA), ranking Republican on the House Rules Committee, said the word around the House is that Democrats are still about 10 votes away from securing the 216 they will need to pass changes to the health-care bill. Dreier added that that number might be moving in the wrong direction for Democrats.

"You are hearing that people are peeling off," he said....

Have I mentioned yet to make your calls?

3:44p: Drudge is calling the above picture posted in yesterday's New York Times President Obama's "resurrection" photo. We shall see....

This is it. This is the week. As a great, Drudge-recommended piece by Clive Cook states in The Financial Times...

From The Hill, tonight:

Freshman Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-OH) is getting VP Joe Biden's fundraising help Monday, but he says his healthcare vote can't be bought.

Driehaus is part of a group of Democrats, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who are insisting that a provision banning abortion funding be included in whatever reconciliation agreement is worked out.

And Driehaus... sounds pretty firm.

"While I certainly support this initiative... I will not bend on the principle of federal funding on abortion.... They are going to have to do it without me and without the other pro-life Democrats."...

From Fox News, March 12:

The pro-life Democrat leading the charge in the House against passage of the Senate health insurance reform bill said Friday that a key committee chairman told him that Democrats want abortions to be paid by a federally-funded nationalized health insurance system.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI, who's been so far out in front of the debate about abortion coverage that he earned himself a primary challenger over it, said Rep. Henry Waxman [pictured right], D-CA, told him he wants to change current law that bans federal funding for abortion....

Either we're starting to lose ground, or the other side is bluffing and trying to make it look like we're starting to lose ground. I will say the person sending me this article only sends me stuff he thinks is serious. Whatever, please make your calls, send your emails, protest at offices, etc. Coming down to zero hour.

From Congressional Quarterly Today, March 11, 10:31p, not available online:

At least 4 lawmakers who supported a blanket ban on abortion funding in the House-passed bill now appear to be wavering in their opposition to the less restrictive Senate version, suggesting cracks in the anti-abortion coalition that has threatened to block completion of a health care overhaul.

House Democratic leaders sounded increasingly confident Thursday that at least a significant number of the anti-abortion lawmakers in their caucus will accept the Senate language rather than scuttle the health care legislation....

Bill O'Reilly dismissed the Eric Massa scandal last night because he considered it simply Republican tit-for-tat for the 2006 Mark Foley scandal.

But the questions are more than what did Speaker Pelosi know and when did she know it, although that's serious enough. The accusation is Massa behaved inappropriately with young subordinate homosexual staffers. From the Washington Post, March 11:

Joe Racalto, Massa's chief of staff, was uneasy that Massa, 50, was living with several young, unmarried male staffers and using sexually explicit language with them, one source said. But what finally prompted him to call Pelosi's director of member services [in October 2009], the source said, was a lunch date that Massa made with a congressional aide in his 20s who worked in the office of [homosexual] Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)....

David Dayen at FireDogLake.com is tracking healthcare votes pretty OCD-edly. And here are his last 4 days' headlines, which don't bode well for Obamacare's passage in the House...

Michael Barone at the Wall Street Journal did the math from another direction but reached a similar conclusion today...

Several have made the point SusanAnne Hiller made at RedState.com March 5 (bold emphasis hers):

[T]he Democrats talk of "reconciliation" or the nuclear option is nothing more than a diversion from what the real goal is - to pass the Senate version through the House and then have Obama sign it into law.

And once signed into law, does anyone really think that Obama will keep his promises of the "fixes" through the reconciliation process after he got what he wanted via the Senate bill?

No.

On that topic I received this from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office...

Following a verrry interesting Sunday afternoon read, a Congress Daily piece dated tomorrow, available by subscription only.

For instance, I didn't know about the Democrat "mini-insurrection" re: Charlie Rangel. Now his sudden willingness to step down as Ways and Means Committee chair makes sense.

Also CD gets into the numbers Pelosi needs to pass the Senate's healthcare bill in the House, "roughly 3 dozen Democrats who are willing to switch their previous 'no' votes on the House's already passed version." Bear in mind the Senate version is even more unpalatable than the House version was for several reasons, including public funded abortion....

UDPATE, 10:38a: Ed Morrissey at HotAir has a list of the Stupak 12 - which includes the lone Republican who voted for the House version when it contained the Stupak amendment. And here's a Hardball clip from last night wherein Stupak confirms the #12 to Chris Matthews that he reiterated this morning on GMA...

10:15a: All signs point to President Obama and Democrat congressional leaders attempting a process called reconciliation to pass a socialist healthcare bill that includes public funded abortion. This means only 51 votes would be required rather than 60. How times have changed....

First some morning stats on time spoken this morning during Obama's healthcare summit:

Democrats: 108 minutes (Obama: 58 minutes) Republicans: 56 minutes

Quote of the day, by Obama: "There was an imbalance on the opening statements because I'm the President. So, I made - I didn't count my time in terms of dividing it evenly."

Despite the stacked deck, here were these observations on the morning half of summit from MSM (GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell)...

UPDATE, 2/25, 11:35a: Here's an interview Rep. Stupak gave to Fox News yesterday. I don't know how many different ways he has to say if there's abortion in healthcare, he spearheads a group of 15-20 who will oppose it. And that should be enough.

According to the New York Times today:

After more than a year of people talking about "President Obama's health care plan," the president actually has offered his own detailed proposal.

And it's now posted on the White House Web site....

The president's plan is based on the bills adopted late last year by the House and Senate but, broadly speaking, bears a greater resemblance to the Senate measure....

Gird your loins.

The following February 17 CQ Online piece (available online only by subscription - posted here on page 2), states Obama may release a new healthcare bill this weekend. It will be a compilation of the House and Senate versions with Obama's own flavoring added.

No mention of abortion, but you know it's in there.

I've been hearing the term "tone deaf" a lot the past several days to describe Democrats still stuck on socialized healthcare and wild spending. Here's another example. These people just don't get it.

Or they do get it but have a bigger, more important agenda at stake, worth losing popularity and congressional seats over. Scary....

1/26, 9:25a: Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee posted this comment, which is a point well taken:

All of this talk about the budget reconciliation process is very interesting, and important in a sense, but it should not be allowed to obscure this most important fact: No health care bill can reach the president's desk without first receiving a majority vote of support in the... House....

StopTheAbortionMandate.com has produced a video, "March for Life 2010 - No abortion in healthcare." They had a little trouble with the sound, but it's still a great video. Watch to end to spot someone you know...

STAM also posted an ABC video about the March for Life, with a focus on abortion in healthcare, which was pretty fair, although how NOW prez Terry O'Neill can keep claiming America is pro-abortion unchallenged is beyond me.

I was in a workshop yesterday when the speaker announced Nancy Pelosi had declared the healthcare bill dead. That's not exactly what I'm reading this morning, although lots of what I'm reading is good.

I had a chance last night to ask Rep. Mike Pence what he'd been hearing. As the 3rd ranking Republican House leader, his ear is as close to the ground as anyone's. He said the chatter was the Dems would try to pass healthcare in bits and pieces.

So no, the issue of socialized healthcare isn't dead. No one should rest on any laurels.

Someone in another meeting said to think of the healthcare issue like the deer scene in the movie Tommy Boy. Recall Richard (David Spade) had just hit a deer, and he and Tommy (Chris Farley) decided to put what they thought was a dead deer in the back seat of their car. Here's what happened next...

I think that's a good analogy. And with that scene in mind, read this Bloomberg story recapping yesterday's events...

Stop the Abortion Mandate is issuing unique March for Life marching orders this year: Bring signs opposing abortion in healthcare - and then keep on marching after reaching the Supreme Court to your congressperson and senator's office to tell them you oppose abortion in healthcare.

I love it.

Here's a video about the added March for Life plans...

STAM has sample signs and more instructions, such as Twitter hashtags to use the day of the March. Those with cell phones need to take full advantage of Facebook and Twitter during the March.

Rush mentioned this incident on his show yesterday, from Politico, January 14...

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson and his wife were leaving dinner at a new pizza joint near their home in Omaha one night last week when a patron began complaining about Nelson's decisive vote in favor of the Senate's health care bill.

Other customers started booing. A woman yelled, "Get him the hell out of here!" And the Nelsons and their dining companions beat a hasty retreat....

I reported January 13 that pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak is mulling a run for governor in his home state of MI.

Stupak has emerged as a national political figure for his stand against public funded abortion in any socialized healthcare plan.

Stupak is rethinking his previous position that he was unelectable to MI's highest office for his pro-2nd Amendment, pro-life stands. He now speculates the political climate may be just right for an independent, um, maverick, if you will.

But there's a problem. If Stupak forsakes his congressional seat for gubernatorial aspirations, it will likely be warmed by a Republican. According to CQ Politics on January 12...

Only 1 sentence on abortion (There's scads of trouble and they haven't even gotten to that issue yet?!), but this is still all good news... more wrenches in Obamacare's works.

Furthermore, a delayed timetable increases the likelihood Scott Brown would be in place to vote against the bill in the Senate, if he wins the MA race.

But Congressman Weiner, "kabuki"? Isn't that dangerously close to "macaca"?

From Roll Call last night, only available via subscription:

Health care negotiators are facing "a serious problem" in resolving their differences and are not likely to have a final bill until February, according to key House Democrats involved in ongoing talks.

"We've got a problem on both sides of the Capitol. A serious problem," Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) said Tuesday evening....

Way cool. Glad Stupak's reconsidering. I think the winds of changing the change are at his back. And I think pro-lifers around the country would help fill his campaign coffers. From Roll Call, January 12 (with more from Politico):

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), a key figure in the debate over abortion in the health care overhaul in Washington, DC, is strongly considering a run for governor, prompting fears from Democratic leaders that his departure would open up another swing seat for Republicans' to target....

Interesting blurb from US News & World Report January 11:

The Obama-Reid-Pelosi healthcare bill is, in the words of CT Sen. Chris Dodd, "hanging by a thread."

The retiring Democrat told CNBC Monday that he was not at all sanguine that the House and Senate could resolve their differences to produce a single piece of legislation that would have the support of a congressional majority. "Everyone feels, I guess, to some degree who have been for this, that they would have liked something different, and that's not uncommon when you're considering an issue of this magnitude," Dodd said....

Our quote of the day yesterday was a news story clip about pro-life protesters from Randall Terry's group Insurrecta Nex disrupting a Harrisburg, PA, event at which pro-life turncoat Sen. Bob Casey spoke Monday.

Here's great video of the disturbance...

Here's more news coverage, from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review...

Read Part I for backdrop.

Click the above to enlarge. The pro-abort group EMILY's List has sent the same email alert twice in the past 3 days, the 1st entitled, "Emergency in Massachusetts," and the 2nd, "Circling sharks."

MA Democrat pro-abort US Senate nominee Martha Coakley is as bad as they get, to the extent she supports partial birth abortion and as a young attorney helped minors circumvent MA's parental consent law in court.

On the other hand, I think it's quite clear the US Senate Republican candidate, Scott Brown, isn't solidly pro-life.

Question is, does it matter?...

(Read Part II here.)

There may be an upset in the making in the race to take Ted Kennedy's place as MA senator. The shoo-in was Democrat Attorney General Martha Coakley. Was.

It doesn't help Coakley that the Tea Party candidate's name is Joe Kennedy, sure to siphon votes from her due to voter confusion alone. Although Kennedy may tap conservative votes from state Sen. Republican Scott Brown, it is Coakley that Hill Buzz thinks Kennedy will make trouble for.

But the surprise is Coakley's emerging competition, Brown.

This becomes a critical race to the rest of us because while Coakley has pledged to be the 60th vote for Obamacare, which would guarantee its passage in the Senate, Brown has pledged to be the 41st vote against, which would kill it....

UPDATE, 1/9, 8:50a: The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform has announced it is suspending its plan to send Truth Trucks to pro-life Democrat MS Congressman Gene Taylor's district after receiving this statement from Taylor's office:

[Rep. Taylor] voted for the Stupak Amendment and then voted against the House health care bill. There is absolutely nothing in his 20-year record that would suggest that it is remotely possible that he would vote for any funding for abortions, direct or indirect, and all of his statements since at least last summer have made it very clear that he will not vote for any new health care program even if it does not have any abortion funding.

CBR is instead scooting the MS Truth Tour bus to Kathy Dahlkemper's district in PA, after The Herald on January 7 carried this quote...

In the Wall Street Journal yesterday, spotlighted on Drudge, columnist Peggy Noonan wrote...

Passage of the health-care bill will be, for the administration, a catastrophic victory.

If it is voted through in time for the State of the Union Address, as President Obama hopes, half the chamber will rise to their feet and cheer. They will be cheering their own demise.

If health care does not pass, it will also be a disaster, but only for the administration, not the country. Critics will say, "You didn't even waste our time successfully."

What a blunder this thing has been, win or lose, what a miscalculation on the part of the president....

Well, this certainly cuts to the chase. From Forbes.com, yesterday:

Abortion has emerged again as a key sticking point in negotiations over healthcare reform....

The fuss has exposed what's been a fairly quiet practice: most health plans now pay for abortions, no questions asked. Why? It saves lots of money....

I got the idea for this post's title from a piece at the New American, which hitchhiked off an interesting New York Times article yesterday. Before I get to that, a snip from the NA piece:

In the end, will he be Bart Stupak? Or will he be Ben Nelson?

Nelson is the Democratic Senator from NE who started holding out for restrictions on abortion coverage, but wound up selling out for more pork for his state....

After Congress recessed, and over the Christmas holiday, I grew tired of posting on the breathless updates on who is sneezing or emitting anal oxide on which aspect of the socialized healthcare issue on any given moment.

But this infuriating article has gotten me back in the game. Argh. Sen. Ben Nelson is such a major putz. From the Fremont Tribune, yesterday:

... Nelson said Tuesday it was a mistake for the Obama Administration to take on massive health care reforms in 2009, and suggested efforts would have been better spent addressing the economy....

Word on the street is pro-socialized healthcare members of Congress are avoiding their constituents while home on recess. This comes from Stop the Abortion Mandate...

Pro-lifers tend to see the glass as half empty, understandably. Wherever we are not succeeding, innocent humans are dying.

So I'm always interested to read how the other side views its glass.

The pro-abort call right now is to overturn the Hyde Amendment, which bans public funding of almost all Medicaid abortions. Pro-aborts have never liked it, of course. Every year they try to kill it, since it must be renewed annually.

But the Hyde Amendment was shown during the healthcare debates to be more problematic than previously understood. It left the other side stunned and embarrassed when incorporated into the Stupak Amendment and passing in a pro-abort-controlled House.

Pro-aborts are now kicking themselves for letting it pass in the 1st place, which I find intriguing - as if it were all up to them.

Following are excerpts from a piece published yesterday by Frances Kissling, former president of Catholics for Choice on all this:

The debate about abortion coverage in health insurance reform is the latest disappointing moment in the efforts of feminists to ensure... the social transformation Roe promised....

To hear President Obama call the Hyde Amendment... an "American tradition" is only the most recent of many misstatements about what a fundamental right entails....

(Click all photos to enlarge.) Rescue the Heartland's Larry Donlan led a 7-member band of demonstrably dedicated pro-lifers who braved knee-deep snow and -9°F windchill, both on foot and in Operation Rescue's Truth Truck, to protest the Omaha, NE, home of pro-life turncoat Sen. Ben Nelson on New Year's Day....

Pretty harsh. Do you think it's deserved?

[HT: moderator Carder]

MT US Senator Max Baucus has been much in the news the latter half of the year, first for wasting everyone's time when releasing a unilaterally supported healthcare bill from his Senate Finance Committee after months of attempted brokering. Never mind Republicans and conservatives, even liberals thought it stunk.

Then in December Baucus admitted to having an affair in 2008 with staffer Melodee Hanes, with whom he took taxpayer-funded foreign junkets, gave a $14k tax-paid raise, and nominated for US Attorney.

All the negative press must have gotten to the man, who apparently downed one drink too many before taking to the Senate floor December 22 to lambaste Republicans for opposing socialized healthcare....

Baucus;s people are of course denying the accusation, according to the Billings Gazette...

We know there is a disparity between the House and Senate healthcare plans on abortion coverage.

The House plan draws a clear line of demarcation: No public funded abortions either directly or indirectly.

The Senate plan includes an abortion tax, as outlined in the Washington Times piece below (and corroborated by pro-abortion DHHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius):

On Page 41 (lines 5-8) of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's manager amendment, the proposed rules mandate that everyone buying insurance through new exchanges or through the new government-run plan must pay a monthly abortion premium to be used for elective abortion services. This fee applies "without regard to the enrollee's age, sex or family status."...

On December 22 at 4:45p, pro-life traitor Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) gave a speech on the Senate floor.

Obviously, he had read the voluminous critiques of his "compromise" that enabled a socialized healthcare bill to pass in the Senate that included public funded abortions.

He had something to say about that...

I think my colleagues know that we introduced legislation that is comparable to the Stupak legislation in the House dealing with barring the use of federal funds for elective abortions.

We introduced it over here. It was bipartisan. It was Hatch - it was Nelson - Nelson-Hatch-Casey, and it didn't pass. So I began the process of trying to find other solutions that I thought equally walled off the use of federal funds and made it clear that no federal funds would be used....

Now, apparently I didn't say, "Mother, may I?" in the process of writing that language because others took issue with it, even though they cannot constructively point out how it doesn't prohibit the use of federal funds or wall off those funds or keep them totally segregated. They just didn't like the language....

Infamous late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart operates his dump of a chop shop in Sen. Ben Nelson's home state of Nebraska.

So when pro-life traitor Nelson voted for socialized healthcare the other day, which included his "compromise" authorizing public funding for abortion, he was gifting one of his fellow Cornhuskers, as the Center for Bioethical Reform graphically shows (click to enlarge)...

Operation Rescue has announced it is sending a huge Truth Truck to Nelson's home "to help him celebrate Christmas."

Yes, Merry Christmas, Senator Nelson.

The White House has video up of an interview conducted yesterday by BlogHer with pro-abort Dept. of Health & Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius.

Thanks to Sebelius for explaining how public funding of abortions will work under the Senate healthcare plan, equally paid by all...

Let's go over that again. When reading the transcript bear in mind Sebelius was talking about the very same abortion compromise Ben Nelson claims to have negotiated...

Very interesting Associated Press article yesterday, worth reading in its entirety.

In part it tells the story behind pro-life Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson's 11th hour abortion "compromise" that garnered the 60th vote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needed to move his socialized healthcare monstrosity forward.

Purposefully shunning input from any pro-life leader or organization about his supposed barrier-breaking brainstorm, Nelson is supposedly complaining, according to the piece, "He... feels like he's been bitten by the family dog."...

I got this question from a friend on Facebook:

So, Jill... what happened with Nelson? You and other pro-life leaders were advising people to be "calm" and to thank him and all indications now are that he prostituted his vote like so many others. How do you know who to trust?

Ultimately, all pro-lifers have when dealing with politicians are relationships, promises, and legislative history....

I'm sure most have heard by now. This is all so dastardly and frustrating, sickening really. Can't believe it's happening. Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's Senate floor speech, given about 1a EST this morning right before the vote is a sobering must read....

Tonight marks the culmination of a long national debate. Passions have run high. And, that's appropriate because the bill we are voting on tonight will impact the life of every American. It will shape the future of our country. It will determine whether our children can afford the nation they inherit. It is one of the most consequential votes any of us will ever take. And none of us take it lightly....

Politico reported this morning...

It had all come down to abortion.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), the last Democratic holdout on health care, excused himself for a tense phone call with a NE anti-abortion activist. But what was supposed to be a short break in the negotiations Friday night turned into a 90-minute nail-biter....

UPDATE, 2p: National Right to Life has issued a statement on the Nelson "compromise." Excerpt:

NRLC... strongly opposes the abortion language contained in the "manager's amendment" filed today.... Reid intends to press for Senate approval of the language during the days immediately ahead, without allowing an opportunity for any revisions to be considered.

The manager's amendment is light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan vote of 240-194. The new abortion language solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill, and it actually creates some new abortion-related problems....

UPDATE, 1:25p: A Dem Republican senator has accused Nelson of holding preborn babies hostage (before sentencing them to public funded death) to get to get perks for NE, according to The Hill, which also notes Nelson's "compromise" has not received the blessing of the USCCB...

With prospects dimming that Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson will either sign on to the Senate bill in its current form, which still authorizes public funding of abortion, or accept a "compromise," pro-aborts are setting their sights on pro-abort Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe. Reported CBS News today:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of NV continued to work to get 60 votes, the number needed to ensure passage of the legislation.... With Mr. Nelson's vote in doubt, President Barack Obama met with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican to show interest in supporting the package, to see if she would back the bill. Sen. Snowe is an abortion-rights supporter....

Great quotes in this ABC News story today:

For 36 years, the controversial Roe v. Wade decision set the ground rules for abortion law in the US, but the issue has continued to simmer beneath the political surface. With the momentum to get a health care bill passed by the end of the year, it is now threatening to boil over and derail the health care legislation, and one senator is leading the helm - Ben Nelson of NE.

Nelson, 68, is a longtime abortion opponent. His amendment to tighten restrictions on federal funding for abortion was struck down in the Senate on Dec. 8, even though a similar measure passed in the House.

Since then, Nelson has racheted up the heat and is threatening to filibuster with Republicans if language similar to what he proposed is not included in the health care bill....

I wrote last week that Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was bluffing on the supposed healthcare compromise reached between liberal and moderate Democrats.

The other side is also bluffing that it is thisclose to having the votes needed to surmount the next procedural hurdle to pass a healthcare bill in the Senate.

I wrote yesterday that prominent liberals, major unions, and rank-and-file Obama groupies are now up in arms against the newly configured Senate healthcare bill, tailored to get Joe Lieberman's vote with major liberal concessions.

With the Left's ire in mind, and also recalling how pro-aborts went ballistic when the Stupak Amendment passed in the House, consider this from ABC News today...

See my previous posts about unions and prominent liberals bailing on Obamacare after key components were dropped to lure Senate votes.

Now Politico is reporting a rank-and-file revolt...

For all this furor (see also this post), I do think liberal groups and unions are saber-rattling. Given the option of getting something they're not happy with or getting nothing at all, they'll take the former, a foot in the door. See the last paragraph of the following article, from the Huffington Post, today:

The nation's largest union group said Thursday that it will not support the Democratic health-care bill unless "substantial changes" are made to the current Senate version.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement to reporters that without a public option for insurance coverage or an employer mandate - and with a tax on high-end insurance plans that some union members get - the health care legislation supported by Senate Democrats falls far short of meeting his group's standards....

UPDATE, 3:45p: The Susan B. Anthony List has just hand-delivered a personal letter to Sen. Bob Casey's office from president Marjorie Dannenfelser.

Dannenfelser's letter is quite strong, worth the read. In it she invokes the memory of Casey's father and his pro-life convictions. Pro-aborts would likely say the letter hits below the belt - if they dared to mention it, which I think they won't. Dannenfelser closes by pledging to pull the ad when Casey commits, like Sen. Ben Nelson, to oppose public funding of abortion whatsoever in any healthcare bill. Excerpts...

I was surprised a little while ago to hear Fox News Democrat and liberal political analyst Kirsten Powers describe the emerging chopped-and-pasted Obamacare legislation as "crappy."...

Feminist.org highlighted reasons pro-aborts are heralding Obama's signing of the spending bill.

President Barack Obama signed the FY 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which includes several major gains for women's health and civil liberties, yesterday....

UPDATE, 12:50p: Nebraska Right to Life has emailed a transcript typed from notes of Sen. Nelson's interview on KLIN this morning...

Q: Has the federal funding for abortion language been changed enough to satisfy you?

A: No, that alone is reason to not to vote for cloture. Hyde should not be weakened, either directly or indirectly. Stupak language is the right language. Others want to improve but don't know if they will be successful....

Amidst a denied report that the White House has threatened NE pro-life Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson with placing NE's Offutt Air Force Base on a closure list if Nelson's continues to resist support of Obamacare, comes news he is perusing a proposed abortion compromise being pitched by PA pro-life Dem Sen. Bob Casey.

Recall Democrats for Life's Kristen Day hinted last week Casey was not to be trusted. to maintain unswerving resolve against abortion in healthcare. Also recall Obama met with Casey privately in the Oval Office Monday.

Following are news reports on the "compromise," which pro-life groups are rejecting.

From the Associated Press, yesterday...

At ReligiousDispatches.org, pro-abort Frederick Clarkson got half his premise wrong, claiming pro-lifers are reaching beyond the Hyde Amendment in our fight to prohibit public funded abortions in healthcare. But Clarkson made a fascinating point, one I think most of us missed...

On October 30 I wrote a "Remain calm about Stupak" post, based in large part on communications with Kristen Day, president of Democrats for Life. Kristen is in direct contact with Democrat pro-life legislators and their offices.

Turns out Kristen was right about MI Congressman Bart Stupak, as we now know.

Kristen has sent another email, this one about NE Sen. Ben Nelson, the Senate go-to guy to keep abortion out of socialized healthcare. I admit it doesn't take much for me to lose faith in politicians professing to be pro-life. There aren't many I 100% believe in, such as Congressman Chris Smith.

But Kristen says to keep the faith with Nelson, while encouraging us to nudge PA Senator Bob Casey...

Flashback:

That was then, this is now...

Recall I wrote earlier that Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid is bluffing; he has no consensus on his healthcare bill.

Here's more evidence, and it's rich. From the Omaha-World Herald, today:

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, may try to eliminate the Senate filibuster.

One or 2 members of the Democratic caucus have taken a "my-way-or- the-highway position" on health care, Harkin said today on a conference call with reporters.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-NE, has shaped up as one of the hardest votes for Democrats to land on the health care legislation. Sen. Joe Lieberman, an Independent from CT who caucuses with the Democrats, also is proving to be a tough sell....

UPDATE, 11:15a: As if skepticism if not outright denial among Senate Democrats about Reid's claim of a compromise reached between libs and mods weren't enough, now add MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's "stick a fork in it" lament last night...

As Politico reported, "Olbermann... said... that losing the pure public option is a "total and unmitigated defeat without a war."

11:04a: Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid gave a grand show Tuesday, December 8, via a public statement and press release that "moderate... progressive members of our diverse caucus... tonight... have come to a consensus."

The only problem is he was bluffing. Bear in mind 4 of the 10 senators brawling behind closed doors over the controversial public option are Feingold, Landrieu, Lincoln, and Nelson.

Here were their statements - made after Reid's big announcement...

Americans United for Life took out a full-page ad in Tuesday's The Hill, and it's fabulous. Click on the link to see the actual newspaper scan. Here's the letter. Click to enlarge....

"I'll go first," I love it.

The next obvious question is, "Cecile, what do you plan to use public funded healthcare kickbacks for?"

But we already know the answer: to cover up underage rapes, and to target black babies for abortion, and most recently revealed, to use scare tactics and provide gross misinformation to abortion-vulnerable mothers.

From Talking Points Memo, December 8:

After his abortion amendment did not win the day on the Senate floor, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) did not come out swinging. Though he insisted that the failure of his abortion amendment "makes it harder to be supportive" of Senate health care bill, he did not reiterate his pledge to filibuster the bill.

"We'll just have to see what develops," Nelson told reporters. "I have no plan B."...

A new wrinkle in the health reform debate is stirring controversy from a curious group: a social justice organization speaking out against the liberal definition of "whole life."

Yesterday pro-abort Sen. Barbara Mikulski echoed words similar to those she recently gave on the Senate floor, which were similar to words by Rep. Patrick Kennedy that launched his brouhaha with Bishop Thomas Tobin.

Mikulski said, according to CNSNews.com...

I think it's morally wrong to vote against health care, because if you really are pro-life - or as Richard - Rick Warren says, "whole-life" - then universal access to health care that would guarantee maternity health, sound wonderful deliveries for children, and so on, I think that's what we want to do.....

Take a listen...

Harry Reid made this remarkably idiotic comment on the Senate floor December 7...

Specifically, Reid said...

UPDATE, 12/9, 8:35a: According to a House source:

The omnibus appropriations bill was considered by a House-Senate Conference [last] night and according to reports (text is not yet available for review), the Mexico City Policy and federal employee provisions were fixed and are no longer a pro-life problem in the bill. But, the hostile DC abortion funding provision was retained. That means that the conference report to be voted on by the House and Senate contains a change to the DC funding policy that would allow congressionally appropriated funds to be used to pay for abortion on demand in the District of Columbia.

35 senators today warned congressional Democratic leaders against attempting to use omnibus appropriations legislation as a vehicle to overturn longstanding pro-life policies on 3 different issues....

As predicted, the pro-abort Senate Democrat leadership orchestrated a vote to table the Nelson/Hatch/Casey pro-life amendment to their socialized healthcare bill. (Note that co-sponsor Bob Casey has been added to the amendment's title, making it a pro-life Democrat sandwich.)

The vote was 54-45, and tabling means the amendment has been set aside and has effectively failed. Since this was a vote to table rather than a vote on passage, the pro-life vote was NAY. The vote breakdown...

UPDATE, 3:57p: Tsk, tsk, Politico, which generally is a lot less biased in its reporting. Here's the headline...

And here are those "religious groups" opposing Nelson-Hatch according Politico, reason enough for pro-lifers to support it without even looking...

So what else is new? The pro-abortion group NARAL began running a deceitful ad this weekend on tv cable channels in pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak's MI district. The ad falsely describes the House amendment he co-sponsored to keep public funded abortion out of its socialized healthcare bill.

According to Freep.com, NARAL will also run the ad "in other key midsize media markets, including Richmond, VA, Raleigh, NC, and the Portland and Bangor markets in ME," explaining:

The ME markets make sense because Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins could be key votes in blocking the Stupak amendment, particularly since there are likely to be some Democratic defections. (Ben Nelson of NE is likely to introduce the Stupak-like language in the Senate, for example.) NARAL said the VA and NC markets were selected because abortion opponents have been active in those states and it wants to hold onto votes in both.

Here's the ad...

A Stupak press release issued in response disassembles the NARAL ad, lie by lie...

UPDATE, 8:25a: The Politico article below indicated a vote may come as early as today on a Nelson-Hatch pro-life amendment to the Senate healthcare bill. However, a reliable Senate source wrote this morning, "Such an amendment has yet to even be filed and no agreements have been reached regarding that issue." Stay tuned.

7:20a:This is all good up to the last 3 paragraphs, wherein Sen. Nelson seems to indicate he would consider a compromise if his pro-life bill fails on the Senate floor, which it almost certainly will. According to Politico, December 5:

In the past week, abortion has flared up as a major impediment to passage of a health care reform bill in the Senate, taking a similar path as it did during the House debate - from obscurity to obstacle in a matter of days.

After months of trying to craft a 60-vote coalition based on the finer points of health care policy, Senate Democrats are growing increasingly worried that abortion will upend what had become a clear path to approving the overhaul bill....

UDPATE, 12:23: Specifics on the Mikulski abortion loophole from a DC source:

Pro-life leaders opposed the amendment because it provides authority that could be used to mandate abortion coverage in private insurance plans. It specifies that anything classified as preventive care or screenings for women by the Health Resource and Services Administration would become a mandated covered service. Therefore, if HRSA recommended abortion as a preventive care, insurance plans would have to cover abortion.

Pro-life organizations advocated for simple language to ensure abortion would not be mandated, but no clarifying language was added.

12:11p: Read LifeNews.com for details.

Here is the 61-39 vote breakdown. 3 Republicans voted FOR the amendment and 2 Democrats voted AGAINST. Republicans were Collins, Snowe, and Vitter. Democrats were Feingold and Nelson....

As I reported yesterday, pro-aborts had been promoting their Stop Stupak Rally for weeks, and in the end it was a bust.

In a Feminists for Choice blog post entitled, "Abortion on the line - A time for rage, not for lobbying!," hardcore pro-abort Sunsara Taylor vented...

The pro-abort Stop Stupak Rally is today, and above is a fresh photo of their petition with the latest # of signers.

The focal point will be DC, but pro-aborts are apparently holding similar rallies in other cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.

For all the build-up (I've been watching their Twitter and blog posts), The Hill reported laughable anticipated numbers:

The lobby day is expected to draw around 500 abortion-rights advocates to rally in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and door-knock on Capitol Hill, said Tait Sye, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood.

500? They've got to be kidding, what a joke. We get 500 supporters at our local tea parties. We shall see.

The MO rally, I think in Jefferson City, has 11 confirmed attendees.

Lesbians are also participating, although I don't know why they're sticking their noses into the abortion debate. If men can't, why can women who don't naturally reproduce?

Follow pro-abort tweets at #StopStupak.

In the wake of the Senate's vote yesterday to move forward with debate on Majority Leader Harry Reid's healthcare bill and all its baggage, National Right to Life's Doug Johnson issued a hostile, ready-to-rumble response, and I gotta say I love it....

WASHINGTON (November 21, 2009) - The US Senate tonight barely cleared an initial 60-vote procedural hurdle, setting the stage for a 2,074-page health care bill, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), to move forward to debate before the full Senate. The following statement was issued by the National Right to Life Committee, the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, and may be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson....

Based on the news below, Matt Lewis asked on Twitter, "How much money would Mike Huckabee immediately raise were he to announce he was challenging B. Lincoln for Senate?" Oh, how I wish.

From the Wall Street Journal, this afternoon:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a centrist Democrat from AR, said Saturday she would vote to move forward with debate on health-care legislation, giving Democrats what appeared to be the 60 votes needed to bring the sweeping bill to the Senate floor for debate....

Before I get to yesterday's statement by pro-life Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson, from NE, a reminder that over 97% of bills approved for cloture (stop filibuster and allow debate) eventually pass. 60 votes are required for cloture but only 50 to pass a bill. Also read this excerpt from a statement by GOP Sen. Jim Demint of SC...

Before I get to the story, the healthcare debate has stirred interesting stats re: black women:

Two points to pull from this morning's RedState.com alert:

1) We must call senators today, because we can't tomorrow, a Saturday.

2) The message must be that a vote for cloture, to begin debate, is a vote for the bill. Members must vote "NO" tomorrow.

I'm surprised Roll Call issued this study...

On November 16, CNN published a story stating pro-life Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson was backing away from full support of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment in the Senate's socialized healthcare bill.

Subsequently, Democrats for Life president Kristen Day informed me this wasn't true.

Yesterday I requested a statement of clarification from Sen. Nelson and have received the following from his communication's office:

"To earn my support, the final bill must not use taxpayers' dollars to fund abortions. My preference is to see Stupak-like language in the final bill. Having said that, I won't rule out other solutions that could incorporate the principles of Hyde and would ensure no premium subsidies would pay for abortions," said Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Key terminology is "ensure no premium subsidies would pay for abortion," which is a point about which I specifically requested clarification. Sen. Nelson was reiterating his opposition to language permitting private insurance companies to pay for abortions that would receive federal subsidies.

As yet unclear is whether Sen. Nelson will vote against cloture this weekend. I've requested an answer from his office on that.

All you need to know is in the headlines, really...

Read National Right to Life's statement outlining just some of the problems with Reid's bill, unveiled last night.

Then keep making calls, which are having an impact. I tried calling Sen. Ben Nelson's office yesterday and simply couldn't get through to his DC office. I thought the line was out of order. My calls to 3 of his NE offices wouldn't go through either. Finally I reached someone who said they've been slammed with calls re: the healthcare bill. Like I said, keep it up.

These senators are our targets...

by Dan Gilgoff at US News & World Report, this article just posted includes a quote from yours truly...

As abortion rights groups slam Democrats for allowing a strict prohibition on federally subsidized abortion coverage in the House healthcare bill, antiabortion groups find themselves in an usual position, given Democratic control in Washington: They're cautiously optimistic about a victory on healthcare.

"The momentum is in the pro-life direction," says Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony List.

Sizing up chances of the House's antiabortion language surviving in a final version of a healthcare overhaul, she says, "This is now a doable project."...

Doug Johnson, Legislative Director of the National Right to Life Committee, has just issued this alert:

In an essay posted today on RHrealitycheck.org (a nexus for pro-abortion activist groups), Rachel Laser - a career pro-abortion activist who now works for the influential "messaging" group Third Way - attempts to resurrect the Ellsworth Amendment.

Even though there is hardly paragraph in Laser's piece that does not contain some substantial distortion, Laser's initiative is not to be taken lightly, partly because she and her group have close connections with White House staff....

I just reported that pro-life Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson told CNN he was content with a phony compromise amendment in the Senate socialized healthcare bill that would still allow for public funded abortions.

Meanwhile pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak, who led the way last week to the House's passage of the pro-life Stupak/Pitts Amendment to its version of socialized healthcare, was on Fox News this morning.

Stupak basically said that should the healthcare bill come back to the House with the Stupak/Pitts Amendment stripped, it would die:

Stupak... dismissed a claim by White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod that President Obama would intervene to change the language, saying Axelrod is clueless on the issue and that such an intervention would imperil the bill....

Not good, from CNN, November 16:

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-NE, who last week insisted that the Senate health care bill include tight restrictions passed by the House on the use of federal money for abortion coverage, now says he would be satisfied with the less restrictive language approved by the Senate Finance Committee....

Sharon Lerner at Double X wrote:

Abortion, it seems, was lost to political horse-trading. But there are also deeper forces at work....

The best example is birth control, which was also recently thrown under the health-reform train. So far, none of the 3 reform bills has required insurers to cover contraception....

Women's health advocates reported that some Democrats cited a fear of igniting controversy when asked to insert birth control and other preventive services for women into the minimum benefits package. What's the controversy, exactly? It seems birth control has become a suddenly loaded political issue, a toxic sister to abortion, somehow resonant of irresponsible sex and women's bodies....

Didn't pro-aborts spend an inordinate amount of time claiming public funding of abortion wasn't included in any of the healthcare bills before House pro-lifers added an amendment specifying there would be no public funding in its healthcare bill?

Yet the hornet's nest that said abortion wasn't in healthcare has been stirred into a frenzy because abortion has been aborted from healthcare....

Pro-aborts are planning to send coat hangers to 20 "formerly pro-choice Democrats" (I wish! I hope!) who voted for the Stupak/Pitts pro-life amendment in the House healthcare bill. Click to enlarge...

Were pro-lifers to attempt the same sort of gimmick we'd have a couple options - photos of hacked mothers being taken by ambulance from front alley abortion mills, or photos of hacked babies after being aborted. Click to enlarge...

Last night Saturday Night Live opened with a parody featuring VP big mouth Joe Biden.

The Huffington Post thought the skit noteworthy because it "comes down on [the] Obama administration for caving on [the] public option."

I think it's noteworthy for not mentioning the clearly biggest problem liberals wanting to pass a socialized healthcare bill have: public funded abortion. That's because abortion isn't funny.

Hardcore pro-aborts like Amanda Marcotte love abortion humor because they think it destigmatizes and normalizes abortion.

Well, pro-aborts like Amanda got no satisfaction from SNL last night. This skit, which has its truly lol moments, would have been drug down by discussion of the A-word, and writers knew it.

FYI, the section on healthcare begins at 2:38...

My friend Judie Brown of the American Life League has posted a chart listing just a few other problems with the House socialized healthcare bill:

While Judie's premise is one on which we will likely always have to agreed to disagree, that attempting to place stopgaps against the culture of death in one area condones the culture of death in another, she is right: The healthcare bill in its entirety is an abomination against the sanctity of life that we must attempt to stop. I appreciate the research ALL has conducted and the work it is doing to stop the healthcare monstrosity.

Please read my earlier post for more of my thoughts on the Stupak/Pitts Amendment topic.

I am increasingly wondering how Democrats, particularly Nancy Pelosi, are going to get themselves out of this jam.

It is becoming clearer that while Nancy made an agreement with Catholic bishops to take abortion out of the healthcare bill, her liberal friends thought she intended to break that deal later....

UPDATE, 11/14, 7:55a: Thanks to Erick Erickson for magnanimously crossposting this at RedState.com.
_______________

11/13, 5:52a: I've read the complaints by conservatives (and even pro-lifers) following passage of the Stupak/Pitts pro-life amendment to the House healthcare bill. They say this simply enabled passage of the entire putrid mess.

My friend Erick Erickson at RedState.com wrote:

Stupak will go out....

Let me be clear to the conservative movement and the organizations participating in the health care debate: the fight over health care is about freedom, not your ridiculous little scorecards. [bold emphasis his]...

Here was a verrry interesting Associated Press story yesterday on just how involved the US Conference of Catholic Bishops - God bless 'em - were in getting the Stupak/Pitts Amendment into the healthcare bill. Pretty wild...

The call came in from Rome, just as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants were scrambling to round up scarce votes to pass their sweeping health overhaul.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick [pictured right], the former archbishop of Washington, was on the line for Pelosi, calling to discuss adding strict abortion restrictions to the House bill.

It was just 1 element of an intensive lobbying effort orchestrated by the nation's Catholic bishops, who have emerged as a formidable force in the health care negotiations. They used their clout with millions of Catholics and worked behind the scenes in Congress to make sure the abortion curbs were included in the legislation - and are now pressing to keep them there....

From ABC News this afternoon, refreshing that Tapper used the word "liberal":

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and Domestic Policy Council director Melody Barnes, health care reform czar Nancy-ann DeParle and other WH officials met with a dozen officials from liberal women's and abortion right's groups this afternoon where they had a "frank exchange," in the words of one attendee....

Great article. Calls Democrats out for "rhetorical sleight of hand" when it comes to abortion. And stepping back, why are the Democrats so cautious about it anyway? I thought abortion was a winning issue for them.

Reported Politico today:

The sudden spasm of intense debate over abortion on Capitol Hill this week threatens not only to stall the passage of health care legislation, but also to shatter the delicate cease-fire that has governed the abortion issue during the Obama era.

After months of dodging high-profile confrontations over abortion, Democrats - including President Barack Obama - find themselves faced with a stark set of alternatives: Support a bill that imposes limits on access to abortion or demand one that might, however indirectly, fund the procedure with taxpayer money....

Patrick Kennedy started all this with a public denunciation almost 3 weeks ago of his church's position opposing socialized healthcare unless it specifically excluded abortion.

Now Kennedy is complaining that his bishop has dared to publicly respond to Kennedy's self-started firestorm. And although Kennedy's statement that he finds Bishop Tobin's public reproaches (here and here) "very disconcerting" may reveal a heart in turmoil, he's not showing it by his actions. Most recently Kennedy voted against the Stupak/Pitts pro-life amendment to the House healthcare bill....

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews last night, quite confident Nancy Pelosi will fix pro-aborts' problems with healthcare when the bill bounces back from the Senate.

But Bart Stupak isn't going away. From the Wall Street Journal this morning...

UPDATE 11-10, 9:38a: Randall Terry and Andrew Beacham have posted video of the fizzled NOW rally yesterday. This was the perfect venue for Terry's antics, and I have to say he cracked me up, even while totally destroying my favorite song of all time...

11-09, 5:40p: Twitter works both ways. It gets word out to the right people... and to the wrong people.

Such was the case this morning when I stumbled upon a tweet by National Organization for Women promoting a rally today in downtown DC to protest the House's passage of the Stupak/Pitts Amendment. The plan was to march around the Senate and House office buildings to scare senators. Click to enlarge...

Well, that didn't take long.

It was only yesterday that pro-abort groups like Planned Parenthood and EMILY's List began pushing Barack Obama to dump the Stupak/Pitts Amendment from the socialized healthcare bill.

Tonight during an interview with ABC's Jake Tapper , Obama responded:

President Obama said today that Congress needs to change abortion-related language in the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives this weekend.

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."...

Of course pro-aborts have ample reason to see red following the House's passage of the Stupak/Pitts pro-life amendment to the socialized healthcare bill. Duck, because they're shooting wildly at each other.

My first indication was this on Twitter...

Then, ooh la la, came this headline in the Huffington Post...

Get out the popcorn...

CBS provided more than fair coverage Sunday of the the House's passage of the Stupak/Pitts Amendment.

Note the solid pro-life talking points...

... and the weak, lame pro-abortion talking points I would not be happy CBS chose to spotlight if I were a pro-abort PR rep...

Recall that at a 2007 Planned Parenthood fundraiser presidential candidate Barack Obama said "reproductive care" (i.e., abortion) was "essential... basic... at the center and at the heart" of his healthcare plan....

Candidate Obama made some promises, and now PP aims to make him keep them. After the House's vote last night to exclude abortion from nationalized healthcare, PP CEO Cecile Richards issued an email alert today calling in some chips....

Despite Politico's swooning piece calling Nancy Pelosi the "master" of House Democrats by passing nationalized healthcare, and despite the elation...

... and despite the "mixed reaction" described by the pro-abortion blog RH Reality Check, there is trouble in Dodge City.

For starters, Planned Parenthood now opposes the House healthcare bill...

Title of the New York Times piece...

Finally. Finally MSM is acknowledging abortion is a problem for Democrats. Finally MSM is acknowledging the abortion civil war within the Democrat Party. And what a play on words. Abortion "bedeviled" Democrats....

UPDATE, 11:25p: From David Brody at CBNNews.com...

Folks, this is a huge deal.

This war for the pro-life community is not over... but nevertheless what happened on Saturday in the House will go down as a HUGE victory for pro-life Americans....

UPDATE, 11:24a: A National Right to Life email alert reminds us that the House switchboard line may be overloaded, as I just learned.

You can get direct-dial numbers for any House office by typing in your zip code at the NRLC Legislative Action Center here. Also, the NRLC Legislative Action Center has U.S. House fax numbers and district office phone numbers here.

UPDATE, 11a: Had a hard time getting through to tell my rep to vote YES on Stupak/Pitts Amendment (and NO on socialized healthcare!). Lines are jammed. Finally did. Have you made your call TODAY? 202-224-3121.

10:47a: I guess the debate about abortion in healthcare has been wild, according to Michelle Malkin on Twitter, although I missed it til now. Here's a link to watch it yourself...

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards has just sent the following emergency email.

Of course, pro-lifers should use the number Richards provides to call their rep to tell him/her to vote YES on the Stupak/Pitts pro-life amendment to the nationalized healthcare bill. [JLS note: Do NOT call Cecile's number! Call 202-224-3121 instead. Per reader Vicki: "The phone number in Richards' email leads to a recorded message from her. Then it rings forever and a message comes on that no one answered (DUH!). THEN, I got a text thanking me for speaking out for reproductive health care.]

And of course, Richards is lying. As I explained in my previous post...

UPDATE, 9:45a: They called our bluff. Now what?

Most of us don't want nationalized healthcare at all, even without abortion coverage. Now that Democrat House leaders have caved and are going to allow a vote whether or not to include abortion (which, by the way, confirms the vehemently denied but obvious: abortion was intended to be covered), what if our amendment passes? Will this clear the way for Obamacare?

No. Public funded abortion has always been a cornerstone of socialized healthcare. If it is excluded, the pro-abort constituency evaporates, both internally (congressional members) and externally (abortion lobby). As of now, House pro-aborts are saying they won't vote for a healthcare plan with an abortion exclusion. Per CNN...

Is your congressperson on this list from GOP House Whip Eric Cantor [pictured right]? CALL!

As of today, at least 69 Democrats have expressed opposition to the Speaker's health care bill. As the bill comes to the House floor, how many Democrats will stand up and vote against a health care bill that raises taxes, cuts benefits to seniors, and spends money that families and small businesses across America cannot afford?

Pelosi needs 39 to carry the majority.

Meanwhile USA Today just posted...

The article below indicates Catholic pro-life Democrats are having a problem defying their bishops on the healthcare bill currently as written. They are not falling for the phony pro-life Ellsworth amendment.

It also indicates Catholic pro-life Dem congressman (and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus) Bart Stupak is holding strong with his assertion he has the votes to stop healthcare on the Life issue. From CNS News, today...

Press release from Congressman Steve King (IA-5)

Congressman Steve King today made the following statement calling on American citizens to come to Washington this weekend to stop a government takeover of health care.

"Nancy Pelosi and Washington liberals cannot ignore what transpired yesterday in Washington. Americans from every state stormed Capitol Hill. They took over the Hill. And they loudly chanted 'Kill this bill!'...

This today, from the AP:

House Democrats acknowledged they don't yet have the votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system, and signaled they may push back the vote until Sunday or early next week....

The apparent problem: Democrats have yet to resolve intraparty disputes over abortion funding and illegal immigrants' access to health care.

[Rep. Steny] Hoyer (D) sought to pin the blame for any possible slippage on delaying tactics expected from Republicans, who unanimously oppose the health care remake. But he acknowledged that Democrats are still short of the 218 votes they need to pass the bill....

The above Boston Globe photo is of TX Congressman John Culberson yesterday, tossing Pelosi's 2k page healthcare bill into an opposition crowd. Reports the Globe...

The above is a shot of the wild scene outside Nancy Pelosi's office yesterday afternoon, as described in The Hill last night...

I've been out of pocket at a speaking event (shout out to Choices of the Heart in NJ!). Lots going on. Here are the latest scoops via Twitter from reliable sources Matt Lewis and Greg Mueller (click to enlarge). I'm afraid to hope we're starting to see a meltdown:

Then there was this, posted 6p ET tonight, entitled, "Pelosi breaks pledge to put final health care bill online for 72 hours before vote"...

From the Washington Examiner, today:

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI, who has threatened to hold up the House health care bill over language he believes would permit taxpayer dollars to be spent on abortions, may not even vote on the bill if it comes to the floor for consideration this week.

Stupak's mother-in-law, Elaine Olsen, died suddenly on Sunday and he is not expected to be in Washington DC this week....

On October 30 Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards emailed a sigh of relief to followers that "every version of the [healthcare] bills out there... respects choice and expands access." Whew.

Then Cecile found out Catholic bishops had only the day before activated nationwide priests and parishioners to oppose nationalized healthcare unless it excludes public funded abortion, as described by the National Catholic Reporter, November 2...

Concerned Women for America has seen into America's future and produced 9 clever automated phone calls we should anticipate if Obama and Congress succeed in railroading nationalized healthcare.

For example, as CWA wrote when introducing the following call, "Under Obamacare, abortion providers like Planned Parenthood could be the official government 'community provider' for clinics at or near schools."...

And here's what to expect of Big Healthcare Brother, since under Obamacare, CWA writes, "you could face substantial fines and even punishment for violating the plan's mandatory insurance requirement."...

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards sent the following email this afternoon, which appears to breathe a sigh of relief - the worst is over, the other side has just one more hurdle to jump to ensure public funded abortion coverage is included in nationalized healthcare.

Furthermore, the email confirms 8 different ways (highlighted and circled) what they've steadfastly denied: Abortion coverage is part of the plan. Click to enlarge...

MI pro-life Democrat Congressman (and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus) Bart Stupak has been a real hero on trying to nix public funding of abortion in healthcare. I can't imagine how we'd stand a chance of stopping it without him.

That's why I didn't jump on Stupak when the following video was released from an October 24 Cheboygan town hall meeting....

Specifically, Stupak said...

Repeating yesterday's Red Alert: Call your congressperson and tell him/her to vote NO on Pelosi's healthcare bill.

This analysis of Pelosi's healthcare bill comes from National Right to Life:

Regarding the health care bill unveiled today by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a spokesman for the nation's largest pro-life organization said, "A vote for this bill is a vote to establish a federal government program that will directly fund abortion on demand, with federal funds."...

Will the Obama administration now place CBS in timeout next to Fox until they both learn to propagandize properly?

A 60 Minutes story last night did the liberal thrust for nationalized healthcare no favors.

The exposé, "Medicare fraud: A $60 billion crime," investigated what "has become one of, if not the most profitable, crimes in America... push[ing] aside cocaine as the major criminal enterprise."...

[View 60 Minutes piece on page 2.]

The Population Research Institute has posted yet another clever cartoon on YouTube, this one 1:10 long.

The description:

Everybody needs a friend they can trust. So let him into your life and see it change today!

Like it? See PRI's 1st cartoon, "Obamacare: Seniors need not apply."

UPDATE, 3:45p: Moderator Carder found the YouTube clip below of pro-abort Grayson hypocritically calling on Congress to "Choose life" to vote for extended healthcare coverage of children under S-CHIP....

Grayson got one fact way wrong: "[I]n America we have 25k children who die every year without reaching their first birthday."

Actually, the figure is 1,225,000, since 1.2 million are killed by abortion annually. How audacious for Grayson to close with, "I turn to the other side of the aisle. Let's save those lives. Let's choose life." Gag gag gag.
_______________

OpenCongress.org lists NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood as top contributors ($5k each) to the 2008 campaign of pro-abort Congressman Alan Grayson. Grayson also supports human embryo experimentation.

So never mind Grayson's lack of decorum for his inappropriate statements on the House floor last week, first saying Republicans battling the Dem healthcare plan would prefer people to "die quickly," followed by an "apolog[y] to the dead... that we haven't voted sooner to end this [healthcare] holocaust in America."...

But backing up, this pro-abort had a lot of nerve. As Rush explained on his show October 1...

First the good news. From the Associated Press, today...

I've written vaguely before about amendments to healthcare bills presented by pro-lifers - and shot down by pro-aborts - that would codify promises the other side makes, such as "Abortion isn't in healthcare." Oh yeah, then why stop the amendments insuring that?

So I thought you'd be interested in specific amendments to the Baucus healthcare plan that were presented today as the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Baucus, began considering his healthcare plan....

Jivin J mentioned yesterday that Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, had been invited to the White House to discuss problems pro-lifers have with any of the proposed healthcare bills.

This morning Charmaine spoke with Fox's Megyn Kelly about the meeting...

The Population Research Institute has posted a clever 1:30 cartoon on YouTube, entitled, "Obamacare: Seniors need not apply." The description of the video reads:

Obama says he can make health care work without cutting costs. We think he will do that by cutting people.

[HT: Colin]

In a fundraising letter for her husband's US Senate campaign in February 2004, Michelle Obama called partial birth abortion "a legitimate medical procedure."

With Politico reporting yesterday Michelle "plans a packed autumn that aides say will include a 'dedicated focus' on health insurance reform," will she be pitching mandated public and private insurance coverage of partial birth abortions?

Oh, I know pba is now illegal, but Michelle also claimed in that fundraising letter a ban against it was "clearly unconstitutional and must be overturned." Michelle could add relegalizing pba to her healthcare pitch.

President Obama's speech writers apparently relied on the liberal online journal Slate for this false story Obama told during his speech before the Joint Session of Congress last week:

More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won't pay the full cost of care. It happens every day. One man from IL lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn't reported gallstones that he didn't even know about. They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it.

Now here's what really happened, from the Wall Street Journal, yesterday...

Never mind Republican and pro-life aversion to the Baucus healthcare plan introduced in the Senate yesterday. Take a look at some of the headlines in today's Huffington Post, a liberal rag. They're pretty funny. Obviously the other side is becoming increasingly frustrated. Click to enlarge:

Click to enlarge...

Democrat MI Congressman Bart Stupak, also House pro-life caucus co-chair, gave an excellent interview to Fox's Megyn Kelly this morning, strongly stating that Obama and Pelosi's contention that abortion isn't in healthcare "is just not true," and that he is "disappointed" the president continues to make that assertion.

Here's the clip...

Partial transcript...

UPDATE, 4:55p: Here's an Associated Press story on the press conference.
_______________

Over a dozen parents with children with disabilities joined Congresspersons Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Trent Franks today in a press conference to reveal rationing in healthcare bill.

The group came together under the Healthcare For Gunner coalition to educate President Obama and Congress know that it will be their children and families who suffer the most and be denied critical care under current health care reform plans.

According to the press release:

"I want my family and my doctor to control my son's healthcare decision, not a government-appointed committee," said Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America and founder of Healthcare for Gunner. "Should President Obama get his way, the life of my son, and millions across the country who are elderly, chronically ill, or require expensive medical treatment, will be at the hands of some bureaucrat in Washington."...

RedState.com has a photo essay from the DC Tea Party today. Here was the best sign...

And 2nd best...

by Carder

Courtesy of the indefatigable crew at the Susan B. Anthony List via Politico, September 9...

Noted Politico's Ben Smith...

Congressperson Michelle Bachmann said on WLS's Don & Roma Show this morning that over 50 liberals in the House say they won't vote for healthcare if the public option is removed, and over 40 Blue Dogs say they won't vote for healthcare if the public option stays in. Pelosi can only lose 38 and still pass a bill.

The Hill reported these numbers on September 8...

Reposting from HotAir.com...

UPDATE, 1:12p: David Brody of CBNNews.com began his story on the Void the Abortion Mandate campaign today, along with poll findings by the Susan B. Anthony List, like this:

You have to hand it to pro-lifers. They don't give it. They are tenacious for sure and today they were back at it with new poll numbers showing that Americans are just not into government funding of abortions when it comes to health care. They also have started a new national campaign called, "Void the Abortion Mandate."

Yeah, pro-lifers!
_______________

Click on the voided check above or go to StopTheAbortionMandate.com to participate in a virtual rally TODAY.

What to do?...

Democrat Congressman Bart Stupak is not going away. From The Hill, tonight:

A leading pro-life Democrat in the House is threatening to block healthcare reform if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) doesn't allow a vote that would prevent the bill from funding abortions.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, says the Democratic leadership must allow a vote adding the "Hyde Amendment" to the bill. That amendment prevents federal dollars from going to abortion funding.

"First of all, you have to give us our vote," Stupak told CBN News, repeating the message he's relaying to the Democratic leadership. "If you don't give us our vote, everything's off the table."...

A couple of responses to that part of Obama's speech tonight. First, from the National Right to Life Committee:

In his address to a joint session of Congress tonight, President Obama said, "One more misunderstanding I want to clear up - under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions."

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the NRLC, commented: "Barack Obama needs to learn that the mere repetition of a verbal formula does not change reality. The reality is that the Obama-backed House bill would explicitly authorize the federal government insurance plan to pay for elective abortions and would explicitly authorize subsidies for private abortion insurance - and all with federal dollars, which are the only kind of dollars that the federal government can spend."...

Missed this, from Human Events, August 31:

1. "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking." ~ President Obama at an August 6 at a rally in VA

2. "They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care." ~ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) in an August 5 interview

3. "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have 2 days and 2 lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?" ~ Rep. John Conyers (MI) at the National Press Club, July 24...

Liberal Christian Obama supporter Jim Wallis debated FRC's Tony Perkins on CNN's Lou Dobbs show August 25.

In that segment Wallis admitted...

Love the title....

Former Democrat presidential candidate, party chair, and Planned Parenthood board member Howard Dean spoke at a Reston, VA, town hall meeting with Congressman James Moran on August 25.

Pro-life activist Randall Terry was also there.

Before the event, Terry staged stabbings of preborns and grandma outside...

Terry went on to disrupt the event, as previously promised. This clip is a tad long at 7:12, but the entire thing is raucous and interesting. For those wanting to fast forward, Terry is first seen at 2:05. Moran mentions Terry from the mic twice, at 3:22 and 4:03....

From CNSNews.com, today:

Restaurant chains with 20 or more stores would be required to display nutrition information, including calorie counts and "suggested daily caloric intake" on their menus, under a mandate contained in [Section 325 of] the health-care reform bill drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee....

Someone just sent me the following surprisingly funny bit posted by the ACLU back in 2005 to protest nationalized IDs. Listening to it, I thought the vignette was ahead of its time, germane to the healthcare debate today. CNS sure confirmed that. Click on the graphic below to be connected to the link....

The New York Times reported yesterday:

Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS....

Experts are also considering whether the surgery should be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual practices put them at high risk of infection. But they acknowledge that a circumcision drive in the United States would be unlikely to have a drastic impact: the procedure does not seem to protect those at greatest risk here, men who have sex with men.

I'm actually a proponent of male circumcision, but that's beside the point....

On August 18 the Wall Street Journal published an op ed Jim Towey, president of St. Vincent College, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and author of Five Wishes, the most widely used living will template in the country.

Towey's piece has gotten much attention. The piece begins:

If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Dept. of Veterans Affairs. He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care....

Hilarious way to start a Monday morning!

[HT: Fran at Illinois Review]

UPDATE, 10:30a: Definition of "wee wee'd up" found, at Urban Dictionary:

wee-wee'd up

Getting wound up or riled up over an unimportant issue.

[HT: Facebook friend Amy]
_______________

Barack Obama yesterday at a Democrat National Committee healthcare forum:

"Wee wee'd up"? Michelle Malkin asks...

Yesterday on Politico...

Thanks to Greg and Kristina at CRC Public Relations for pitching my August 12 blog post, "Section 1233 authors are major proponents of euthanasia, assisted suicide," to news sources. Yesterday Connie Hair at Human Events wrote an in-depth story:

Democrats have spent the past 2 weeks trying to convince elderly American voters that only right-wing whackos could believe that Obamacare will lead to rationed healthcare or "death counseling" to convince those over 65 that they should help cut health care costs by, well, dying....

Am listening to the liberal religious teleconference pushing Obamacare. Obama is supposed to speak at some point. (You can listen in, too, at 347-996-5501, no passcode required.)...

This ad popped up on Craigslist yesterday (click to enlarge):

While Planned Parenthood has been swearing up and down abortion isn't in Obamacare, here's an ad placed by PP Chicago stating quite the contrary....

Yesterday I took part in a planned protest of my IL Democrat Obamacare-loving Congresswoman, Debbie Halvorson (CD-11), who refuses to hold a townhall meeting during summer recess.

We were surprised to be greeted by Obamacare counterprotesters, who learned about our protest and beat us to the coveted spot in front of Halvorson's office.

I've read that while complaining about we astroturf, unAmerican, mobs of "evil mongers" (the latest depiction of us by Harry Reid, yesterday), the other side has been organizing unions to brandish its message.

I'm here to corroborate. First, just by perusing these 2 photos you can tell the financially backed, highly organized group from the organically grown group...

In this week's video report, the American Life League leafs through the 1k+ pages of Obamacare to show how abortion is a Trojan horse in the bill.

Then ALL challenges Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association for supporting Obamacare, dropping this little bombshell: 5 days after endorsing Obamacare Catholic Charities got its 1st ever government contract - for $100 million. Quid pro quo....

On a grander scale, Deal Hudson at InsideCatholic.com has been writing on this topic all week. On August 10 in a piece entitled, "The risks of a 'right' to healthcare," Deal wrote:

Through the official statements of the USCCB, the Catholic bishops assert that health care is a "basic human right." Since the release of their 1981 pastoral letter on health and health care, the bishops have consistently argued that the federal government is responsible for establishing "a comprehensive health care system that will ensure a basic level of health care for all Americans."...

Perhaps more Catholics would question the necessity of the present suggestion for health care reform if they realized the central argument - health care as a human right - is muddled and, therefore, dangerous....

To assert the right to health care as the end of the argument leaps over both prudential reasoning and the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which stipulates that a social problem should first be dealt with at a local level before being addressed at higher, governmental levels....

Giving the responsibility for adjudicating the meaning of the health care right to the government poses obvious problems for Catholics, and should be a deal-breaker for the bishops....

Catholics will be handing the morally charged responsibility of medical treatment to political leadership whose operating assumptions about the human person are antithetical to Catholic social teaching.....

In a piece yesterday entitled, "Catholics Should Oppose a Federal Takeover of Healthcare, Period.," Deal wrote:

Are all Catholics supposed to become socialists in order to solve the health needs of the poor, the immigrants, the uninsured? Opposition to a federal takeover of healthcare is not just an "American" protest, it is a Catholic one, as well. A Catholic should know as well as any other citizen that the truly personal life of individuals and families should not be controlled by the state.

The current healthcare legislation, in all 5 of the bills being considered, poses a clear and present danger to the conscience and religious liberty of every Catholic. Catholics should be challenging the assumption that Church teaching is congruent with government-directed, universal healthcare. Medical care is one of the most morally-charged and private dimensions of our personhood. Why would anyone want to hand off those decisions to the federal government?

Rather than being directed by an individual's decision-making, the government, with its own value system, will inevitably be rationing healthcare.

I concur with Deal completely and am relieved to read his thoughts. I have been bothered by certain Catholic leadership support of nationalized healthcare. I would be just as bothered if aware of liberal Protestant support as well, which I'm sure is out there.

The Evangelical Protestant perspective, which as you know is solo scriptura, is that the Church is primarily responsible to care for the poor and the sick, (importantly, the sick poor). Deal is saying the same thing from a Catholic perspective.

The government's role is to protect citizens, and provide societal order and justice.

Mixing these roles causes societal chaos and harm. We've seen the government completely muck up care of the poor, since it instituted welfare, thwarting Biblical teaching, for instance, that fit people should not be given handouts. Who can forget the photo, for instance, of a supposedly homeless poor man taking a photo of Michelle Obama with his cell phone while in line for free food at a local D.C. soup kitchen in March?

We've seen the government completely muck up care of the sick, too, since becoming involved in healthcare, using that launchpad, for instance, to thwart Biblical teaching about sexual behavior.

In essence, the Church is abdicating its primary societal responsibilities by pawning the the poor and sick off on the government.

The pattern of giving also becomes hopelessly imbalanced. Whereas people used to give more to the Church and charities to care for the sick and poor, now the government is siphoning off that money and the Church and charities are getting less. Obama only plans to exacerbate this imbalance by decreasing tax write-offs for charitable giving. The principle of tithing (giving 10% to Church) becomes that much more difficult to attain.

It is good for pro-lifers to argue against abortion and euthanasia in Obamacare.

But Christians need to step back and argue against the principle of government-run healthcare.

[Top and middle photo attribution: InsideCatholic.com; bottom photo attribution: Los Angeles Times]

I wrote August 10 about the now infamous Section 1233 in a House version of the nationalized healthcare plan, which has concerned even healthcare proponents as pushing euthanasia on the elderly.

Kudos to FRC's The Cloakroom (here and here) for drawing attention to the fact that the 2 authors of Section 1233 are major proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The first is Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer. Recall Oregon was the 1st state to legalize physician assisted suicide almost 12 years ago. Blumenauer wrote on Huffington Post July 28:

Rep. Buck McKeon admonished people to read the bill and then specifically cited Section 1233. Actually, I know a little bit about this section because it's a bill that I wrote which was incorporated into the overall legislation.

Blumenauer wrote an amicus brief in support of assisted suicide in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, Gonzalez vs. Oregon....

At an August 10 townhall meeting in San Jose, CA, Democrat Congresswoman and Obamacare advocate Zoe Lofgren admitted abortion is covered in the House versions of the nationalized healthcare plan:

... [A]bortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the healthcare plans available to Americans, and I think it should be.

See for yourself:

I was pleasantly surprised by the overwhelmingly applause the questioner received in support after saying, "Abortion is clearly not healthcare."

[HT: David Schmidt]

UPDATE, 12:31p: My own rabid pro-abort representative, Debbie Halvorson, who I famously tangled with during the brief moment in time when mandating the HPV vaccination to preteen girls was the cool thing for legislators to do, is on the GOP's micro-target list of 13 within its larger target list of 70.

Halvorson, who supports socialized healthcare, has thus far refused to hold a townhall meeting during summer recess. Tomorrow Thursday (August 13) I'll take part in a "We want a meeting!" protest at Halvorson's office at 116 N. Chicago St., Joliet, IL, from 11:30a-1p. If you live in my district, consider joining in?
_______________

I was just thinking this morning it has been awhile since I received an email alert from Planned Parenthood (July 24) or NARAL (August 3) on the healthcare debate. I wondered if there was a connection to Obama's glaring omission of abortion on his new Reality Check website....

The new website No2Obamacare.com, part of the great Wisconsin Right to Life, has just released a clever and well done video against Obamacare:

The White House launched a healthcare "Reality Check" website today.

I'll address the White House's anti-euthanasia spin in my next post, but for now, do you notice a certain topic missing from "Reality Check" rollout? That's right, abortion....

Last week FRC Action unveiled a new ad, initially running in 5 states that are key in the healthcare debate: AR, AK, LA, NE, and PA:

Well, this hard-hitting, absolutely true ad has hit a royal liberal nerve. For example, from Salon today...

Only yesterday White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed anger seen by Democrats at townhall meetings as "manufactured" by conservative groups:

Here's a taste of that "manufactured" anger, from an August 2 townhall meeting sponsored by PA Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius:

Now, today, Obama himself, from his campaign email address (and this blending of Obama's campaign and public office has always bothered me... fine print on this email says "Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee") is manufacturing support for his healthcare plan (click to enlarge):

Yesterday conservatives publicized that the White House was recruiting informants on its blog to turn in emails and web addresses of those spreading "disinformation" on Obamacare, i.e., anything in opposition.

Today Big Brother's request remains up (click to enlarge)...

... prompting Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to write a great letter to the WH reminding Obama of the First Amendment, requesting him to remove the request, and asking exactly what Obama plans to do with names, email addresses, IP addresses, and web addresses of people countering his healthcare disinformation. Great last line:

Do your own past statements qualify as "disinformation"? For example, is it "disinformation" to note that in 2003 you said: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan"?

[HT on Cornyn letter: Michelle Malkin]

Obama made a very strange comment last night while trying to bolster support for socialized healthcare.

Transcript...

The Dem din is growing louder on the topic of abortion. Some good quotes in this CNN story tonight:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking at a news conference with advocates for health care reform, said... the House Democratic leadership has the votes to pass a health care bill - a claim that was immediately challenged by an anti-abortion caucus that fears the House bill will create a government-run insurance plan that covers abortion services.

"It would be easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than to pass this bill," Rep. Bart Stupak of MI said. He claimed the abortion issue would cost Pelosi too many Democratic defectors to get the bill through....

Just last week I wrote about Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America, and her valid concern that infant son Gunner would receive inadequate care under nationalized health care.

This morning Kristan made a compelling case during a Fox interview:

For more information go to healthcareforgunner.com.

Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America, has an op-ed in the Washington Examiner today regarding nationalized health care and the detrimental effect it would have on special-needs patients, including her new son:

When my son Gunner (pictured above with Mommy and Daddy and left) was born, it was the best day of my life. But it was followed soon after by the worst day of my life -- when he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease. Gunner was just over two months old. I was shocked; I had never known anyone with CF.

Adding to this shock was finding out how Gunner would be impacted by the new nationalized health care system proposed by President Obama and Congress. It was worse than I'd ever imagined....