Abortion Advocates Turn on Each Other in Civil War After Stupak Amendment Vote
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 9, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates are turning on each other in the wake of the House vote on the Stupak amendment that saw massive abortion funding stripped from the health care bill. Abortion advocates are upset with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants while grassroots abortion activists are companying about the leadership at Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
In the House, the feud saw top pro-abortion lawmaker Rosa DeLauro take on Pelosi, according to a Politico report.
Before representing Connecticut, DeLauro was the executive director of the pro-abortion group Emily’s List and she had that single-minded pursuit of the abortion agenda in mind as she took on the Speaker.
When Pelosi announced she would allow a vote on the Stupak amendment in order to get support from moderate and pro-life Democrats for the bill, an angry shouting match ensued between DeLauro and pro-abortion Pelosi lieutenant Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat.
Politico indicates Miller told DeLauro that there were “more pro-life votes in the House than pro-choice” and said she needed to come to grips with that fact.
DeLauro denied yelling at Miller but told the news service that she made her views “strongly known” to the Democratic leadership present in Pelosi’s office at the time.
“I stood my ground,” DeLauro said. “The speaker does that, Mr. Miller does that, [House Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer does that. We all stand our ground. We also know, we all know, that you must focus on the endgame, and that’s to pass health care.”
One top aide told Politico that the conflict between Pelosi and her Democratic leaders and the backbenchers who make up the pro-abortion activist circle in the House was indeed bitter.
“Normally, at the end of the day, you’re arguing over fine-tuning,” the aide said. “But this is a sizable change to current policy. So everyone was kind of stunned.”
Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado, Louise Slaughter of New York and Lois Capps of California were also upset — Slaughter so much so that she boycotted the meeting of her own committee, the House Rules Committee, which prepared the rules for debate on the health care bill.
"I don’t believe any of us believe we can hold up what we’ve been fighting for … and that’s health care,” Slaughter said before the vote, at least touting the Pelosi line publicly.
Meanwhile, a writer at the pro-abortion DailyKos is expressing the sentiment seen on social networking sites against the pro-abortion leadership groups Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
"Stupak wrote a letter signed by 19 Democrats saying they would do just what they’re doing right now – holding the bill hostage. And what did NARAL and Planned Parenthood do?" the writer asked. "Well, they released a lot of statements echoing the President’s contention that the bill contained no abortion funding. But that was never Stupak’s objection."
"[H]elping the Democrats stay in power by giving them the Official Good Gyno Seal of Approval is what NARAL and Planned Parenthood do," Jane Hamsher lamented.
She continued with the kind of in-fighting normally seen within pro-life circles.
"Could they whip the pro-choice women to block the rule if they want to? Of course they could. Yank their endorsements and they could cause havoc within the Democratic Party," she writes. "But they won’t, because Nancy Keenan [pictured right, with Obama] and Cecile Richards value their own personal position … WAY too much to take that risk. For them, what’s good for the Democratic Party is good for choice, even when the party abandons them."
"But let’s be clear about this. The only reason that we are in [this] position… is because Planned Parenthood and NARAL have allowed it to happen," she continued in the flaming post.
The DailyKos post went as far as complaining that Cecile Richards made over $385,000 annually in salary and that NARAL paid Nancy Keenan $145,538 from its coffers in 2007.
"One can only imagine what would happen if pro-choice supporters started calling them. In short, Stupak and his fellow anti-abortion demagogues within the Democratic Party only get away with this because NARAL and Planned Parenthood let them," she concluded.
Finally, some Democrats say they are going to work to defeat the 64 members of the party who wound up voting for the Stupak amendment.
Calling abortion "a fundamental part of our belief system in the Democratic Party," the Democrats at FireDogLake blog pledge to support pro-abortion Democrats in primaries against the pro-life and moderate party members who backed Stupak.
The pro-abortion lawmakers are already striking back — circulating a letter to Pelosi with 41 signatures thus far saying they will vote against the health care bill if it comes back from conference with the Stupak amendment attached.
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