Democrats for Life Defending Lawmakers Who Backed Pro-Abortion Health Care
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 7, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Democrats for Life of America is striking back against the pro-life organizations that are targeting the formerly respected pro-life Democratic members of Congress who supported the national health care bill that contained massive abortion funding and was opposed by every other pro-life group.
After Rep. Bart Stupak and some of his colleagues yielded to President Barack Obama and his pro-abortion allies in Congress, pro-life groups like National Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List began targeting them for defeat.
They have already been successful in West Virginia, where Rep. Allan Mollohan, who enjoyed solid relationships with Right to Life officials who told him he could lose his seat if he voted for the pro-abortion health care bill, has been defeated in the Democratic primary by a candidate who made opposition to the bill a centerpiece of his pro-life campaign.
They have also endorsed pro-life candidates to take on lawmakers like Steve Driehaus in Ohio, Kathy Dahlkemper in Pennsylvania and Brad Ellsworth in Indiana.
Now, DFLA is fighting back to support some of the members and has started a political action committee to support 15 Democratic members, including Driehaus.
The Washington Post indicates the new group bears the moniker "Whole-Life Heroes," a reference to the Democrats for Life position that the bill is somehow pro-life because it supposedly will reduce abortions by providing a limited amount of support for pregnant women even though other pro-life groups unanimously say it contains taxpayer funding of abortions.
The Post indicates the DFLA PAC will try to convince voters the executive order Obama signed that supposedly stops the abortion funding — pro-life groups strenuously disagree — will actually do that even though the Obama administration shows no signs of implementing it.
The political action committee will also reportedly try to persuade voters that the scant amount of funding for pregnancy support efforts — announced at the end of the day on Friday on a holiday weekend with little media attention or fanfare — is enough to mitigate any abortion concerns.
The newspaper quoted Driehaus, who maintains the health care bill will not fund abortions.
"It’s a complicated subject, and there’s been a lot of misinformation from the other side," Driehaus said. "They’re playing to fear, and that’s a powerful emotion. But the facts are that not a single abortion will be paid for using federal funds under this law, and I plan to be out there making sure people have the facts."
But his opponent Steve Chabot, a former GOP congressman who was the lead House sponsor of the partial-birth abortion ban, told the Post "There are an awful lot of pro-life people in this district who don’t feel that over time it will prevent federal funding of abortions."
In March, the National Right to Life political action committee announced it is backing Chabot.
National Right to Life said Driehaus betrayed his supposedly pro-life views by voting for a bill that it called the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.
“In sad contrast, the current occupant of the First District seat, Steve Driehaus, voted to enact President Obama’s massive health care legislation (H.R. 3590), although it lacked the pro-life protections" Right to Life and pro-life groups wanted.
"On this critical issue, Mr. Driehaus talked a good game, but ultimately came down on the side of President Obama, who successfully blocked the pro-life protections from being included in the bill – just as, throughout his political career, Mr. Obama had opposed the very types of pro-life policies that you championed," NRLC added.
In Michigan, Right to Life of Michigan withdrew its endorsement of embattled Congressman Bart Stupak.
And radio ads sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List and the Family Research Council criticized those pro-life Democrats who voted for the bill. At the same time, Democratic Reps. Gene Taylor in Mississippi and Dan Lipinski in Illinois, benefited from ads thanking them for standing true to their pro-life principles and voting against the bill.
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