Stupak: "They Just Want This Over"
Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”
According to Stupak, that group of twelve pro-life House Democrats — the “Stupak dozen” — has privately agreed for months to vote ‘no’ on the Senate’s health-care bill if federal funding for abortion is included in the final legislative language. Now, in the debate’s final hours, Stupak says the other eleven are coming under “enormous” political pressure from both the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). “I am a definite ‘no’ vote,” he says. “I didn’t cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we’re all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions.”
Stupak says he also doesn’t trust the “Slaughter solution,” a legislative maneuver being bandied about on Capitol Hill as a way to pass the Senate bill in the House without actually voting on it. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” he says. “I don’t have a warm-and-fuzzy feeling about what I’m hearing.”
Stupak notes that his negotiations with House Democratic leaders in recent days have been revealing. “I really believe that the Democratic leadership is simply unwilling to change its stance,” he says. “Their position says that women, especially those without means available, should have their abortions covered.” The arguments they have made to him in recent deliberations, he adds, “are a pretty sad commentary on the state of the Democratic party.”
What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”
If Obamacare passes, Stupak says, it could signal the end of any meaningful role for pro-life Democrats within their own party. “It would be very, very hard for someone who is a right-to-life Democrat to run for office,” he says. “I won’t leave the party. I’m more comfortable here and still believe in a role within it for the right-to-life cause, but this bill will make being a pro-life Democrat much more difficult. They don’t even want to debate this issue. We’ll probably have to wait until the Republicans take back the majority to fix this.”
“Throughout this debate, even when the House leaders have acknowledged us, it’s always been in a backhanded way,” he laments. “I’m telling the others to hold firm, and we’ll meet next week, but I’m disappointed in my colleagues who said they’d be with us and now they’re not. It’s almost like some right-to-life members don’t want to be bothered. They just want this over.”
And the politics of the issue are pretty rough. “This has really reached an unhealthy stage,” Stupak says. “People are threatening ethics complaints on me. On the left, they’re really stepping it up. Every day, from Rachel Maddow to the Daily Kos, it keeps coming. Does it bother me? Sure. Does it change my position? No.”
UPDATE:
Congressman Stupak called NRO to clarify his comments. In recent conversations, he says that some Democratic members, not Democratic leaders, have been citing a Congressional Budget Office report that says his amendment will cost $500 million to implement over ten years.
“I did not mean to infer that the leaders are using financial arguments to deny my amendment,” he says. “We have spoken about the CBO and my amendment’s costs, but the leadership has not said that it costs too much money. My point here was that if cost is becoming a concern about my amendment, then that should be addressed, since this is the sanctity of life we’re talking about. We can address those costs. Cost should not be a reason to deny my amendment.”
Georgia Considers Outlawing Abortions Based on Race, Gender
Are health care providers using abortion to curb the growth of the U.S. black population?
That question will be at heart of a debate among Georgia lawmakers, who are poised to take up a controversial bill that would outlaw abortions prompted by the baby's race or gender.
The issue that has inspired a billboard campaign claiming a racial conspiracy is behind the termination of pregnancies. The billboards have drawn national attention for claiming black babies are an "endangered species."
As for the bill, it barely made it out of committee this week, in a 7-6 vote and it still needs to clear the Rules Committee before heading to the full House, but proponents are emboldened by the recent committee vote.
"I'm excited," said the author of the bill, Republican state Rep. Barry Loudermilk. "I think this is one of the most difficult hurdles to face."
But the bill is far from the finish line, and opponents are beginning to line up.
"We're going to go all out to stop the legislation," said Loretta Ross, national coordinator of SisterSong, an abortion-rights group. The bill would have a "chilling effect" on "communities of color that are already suffering from a lack of health providers," she said, and would "drive up malpractice costs."
Ross said she will make her case to members of the Rules Committee and believes the bill will be sent back to Judiciary Committee because of constitutional concerns and lack of statistics illustrating the problem.
"Also, let's be clear," she said. "The entire agenda underlining this is not about saving black babies. It's hard for me to believe people not working with us to save the babies here want to save unborn babies."
Ross said supporters want to enact an abortion ban that can be enacted in other states.
"What it's going to do is tie up a lot of time and resources over a red herring struggle," she said.
Loudermilk told FoxNews.com he believes the bill has a good chance of passing both chambers.
"I think the majority of the members of the House are pro-life, as well as the state Senate," he said. "We're just going to have to educate them on what's in this bill."
If the bill passes, providers cannot solicit, perform or accept funding for abortions they know are prompted by the baby's race or gender. Providers who are found guilty each would face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000. Pregnant women would not be held liable.
Loudermilk, who acknowledged that enforcement will be difficult, said the bill applies the same standards used for outlawing discrimination in workplace and in schools.
Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach for Georgia Right to Life, the group behind the billboard campaign, told FoxNews.com that she supports the legislation that she says will address an issue that has "such a disproportionate impact on the black community rather than every other community in Georgia, as well as the nation."
Davis noted that in 2008, blacks made up 30 percent of the population in Georgia but more than 57 percent of the abortions.
"Those numbers are so horrific," she said. "There has to be something else contributing to this number."
Davis said one study shows there is a direct correlation between the location of most abortion clinics in urban areas and the number of abortions by black women. In Georgia, she said, 100 percent of the clinics are in urban areas. Nationwide, it's 75 percent, she said.
"I believe it's deliberate," she said, citing Oregon as one example where most abortion clinics are located in black neighborhoods despite an overwhelming white population in the state.
But Ross dismissed that out of hand.
"I can't find facts to fit their conspiracy theory," she said, arguing that abortion clinics are located where there are clients.
"If you own a grocery store, would you put it 20 miles from where it's needed?" she said. "So that logic that it's in urban areas because it's black and not where clients are doesn't make business sense. It's an irrational argument."
Ross agrees that abortion is having a disproportionate impact on the black community.
"Because of health disparities, less access to birth control, less access to sex education," she said. "We have a higher rate of childhood sexual abuse. … And so when you have those types of disparities, you'll have unintended consequences.
"I tend to resent the manipulation of data that claims abortion is the problem when we're not doing everything we can to make sure health disparities are addressed."
Davis said she is "flabbergasted" by the intensity of the opposition to the bill.
"You can still get an abortion," she said. "Is there all this hoopla because these doctors are doing what I suspect they're doing?" she said. "Otherwise, why are they up in arms about our campaign?"
Davis, who is black, said she just wants to see an end to what she called a racially motivated practice.
"If they will stop targeting my people, I will fade softly into the background," she said.
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Sources: National Review, Fox News, Youtube, Google Maps
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