Breaking News: House passes Stupak pro-life amendment 240-194
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….
First of all, if you just heard a loud thud well that was pro-choice liberals in the House plopping down in their seats dumbfounded and frustrated as can be. Not only does their healthcare reform bill not contain a “robust” public option but it now contains this new pro-life language. This is a horrible turn of events for House liberals. You can be sure they’ll be pressure on Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer to strip this language out in conference (if the bill makes it that far) but for now this vote tonight is something pro-choice liberals will lose some sleep over.
It should not be lost that the vote here was 240-194. This was not a 218-217 squeaker. Far from it. This was a pretty resounding statement about where this country is at regarding abortion. Think about it. The Democratic Party controls the House and yet look at how well this pro-life vote did tonight. Remember 2006 when the Democratic Party took control of the House? Well one of the reasons for that was because the party was able to find moderate pro-life Democrats in the South and other parts of the country to increase their margin. Well those same pro-life Democrats came back tonight and had their say.
Let me also say that Nancy Pelosi really had no choice here but to allow this vote. If she didn’t, the healthcare reform bill would have gone down to defeat….
11:04p: Big pro-life victory tonight. BIG. That socialized healthcare passed in the US House is a battle to wage tomorrow. Tonight, appreciate a huge victory for preborn babies. From the Associated Press:
A bipartisan House coalition voted Saturday to prohibit coverage of abortions in a new government-run health care plan that Democrats would establish to compete with private insurers….
The 240-194 vote on an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI, was a blow to liberals, who would have allowed the Obama administration and its successors to decide whether abortions would be covered by the government plan. Sixty-four Democrats joined 176 Republicans in favor of the prohibition.
Stupak’s measure also would bar anyone from getting federal subsidies to help cover their premiums for private insurance polices that would include abortion coverage.
“Let us stand together on principle no public funding for abortions, no public funding for insurance policies that pay for abortions,” Stupak urged fellow lawmakers before the vote.
The amendment would bar the new government insurance plan from covering abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is in danger. The Democrats’ original legislation would have allowed the government plan to cover abortions, if the Health and Human Services secretary decided it should.
The amendment also would prohibit people who receive new federal health subsidies from buying insurance plans that include abortion coverage….
Abortion rights advocates called the measure the biggest setback to women’s reproductive rights in decades….
Abortion-rights supporters say private insurers will not likely offer policies with abortion coverage in the exchange because many potential buyers will be getting federal subsidies….
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His mercy endures forever…”
Be that as it may, the fact that children born and unborn will be forced to pay for an unsustainable 2 trillion dollar entitlement, live in a land whose freedoms have been seriously leveled, where there is rationed healthcare for all…
Sucks.
I will try my best to focus on the positive that the Stupak Amendment passed.
The rest of the bill? Not so happy.
The fact that the purpose of the Stupak Amendment could be removed in mere committees? That doesn’t make me all that happy either.
I will continue to pray for the safety of mothers and unborn children! I will also pray for a proper health care system that is centered on freedom, innovation, primary prevention, good treatments, and TRUE choice in our individual decisions of health care coverage or health savings accounts.
Remember the Democrats control the Senate as well. They will find a way to sneak this back somehow. I don’t trust them for a second.
And goodbye to all those “blue dog” dems who voted for this bill.
We can look forward to a conservative landslide next year.
:)
Have faith in the good of people, Joanne. See, this isn’t a liberal thing because the Democratic Party is the liberal party. This is a human rights thing, and they stood up for human rights despite enormous pressure.
Bigots everywhere are flabbergasted…
Now if I’m going to further oppose the health care reforms, I can do so as an outraged tax payer and not as an outraged pro-life person.
This is truly amazing, that those amendments were written in. Thank God…..
Hopefully you are right Vannah. I just don’t trust Democrats at all, especially Pelosi.
When John Boehner asked each committee member that lead writing this monstrosity of a healthcare bill if they would personally guarantee upholding the Stupak-Pitts amendment in committee if it were to pass, each one of them balked, and refused to answer his question. They danced around it. Rangel was dumbfounded and testy. Basically, they showed they don’t care what others in the House vote for, they will do what they want to do. (The power is not merely in having representation, it’s in having representation in the right places – the final committee.)
In other words, passing amendments is useless unless the final working committee actually approves that amendment. Some votes are more equal than others. Given the lineup such as Rangel et al, I have no doubt the amendment will be stripped out.
After reading portions of the HR 3269 bill, the numerous entitlements that will be going to Planned Parenthood for all sorts of sex promotion. Also, there is a rather ominous section in there that proposes studying pregnancy and abortion to provide definitive data to Congress on the whole issue of abortion. I’m highly skeptical of a legislative body that lies directly to constituents, will demand actual results and not another pile of trumped up data.
There’s too much that’s anti-life in the bill. I’d rather have seen the amendment fail, along with the bill – then I’d be celebrating.
As I currently see it, this is nothing more than a whitewashing excuse to continuing to compromise life.
My prayer is that young women and men wake up and realize that evil is profiting and gaining power based upon their own painful self-victimization.
Sunday Quote: Psalm 22
I’m so excited. This is pretty great!
Me, too, Pip! :)
Here’s how everyone voted:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll884.xml