Democrats for Life Sole Pro-Life Group Defending Pro-Abortion Bill, Stupak
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 22, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Just one pro-life organization has issued a statement applauding the pro-abortion health care bill the House approved Sunday night and the executive order deal Congressman Bart Stupak stuck with President Barack Obama to get enough votes to secure its passage.
Democrats for Life of America is the national organization for pro-life Democrats who were once respected by have become the laughingstock of the pro-life movement thanks to Stupak’s deal.
The organization’s executive director, Kristen Day, sent LifeNews.com a statement praising the deal, Stupak and Obama.
"We applaud President Obama for his bold leadership in agreeing to an executive order that bans taxpayer-funded abortions in the health care reform bill that passed the House,’ Day said. "We are proud to support this historic health care legislation."
"President Obama’s Executive Order shows that when we work towards common ground in Washington, we can do the people’s business and end the gridlock. By working with House leaders and the White House, DFLA shows how pro-life Democrats are a key and growing constituency," Day added.
Her comments stand in stark contrast to dozens of pro-life groups that have panned the executive order as a sham. Even Planned Parenthood called the order meaningless.
Day omits any mention of the portions of its legislative initiative that made its way into the Senate bill as a reason for supporting it.
Democrats for Life had been championing the Pregnant Women Support Act it called the 95-10 Initiative that merged some pro-life measures with provisions to provide support for pregnant women.
On the Senate side, when Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska decided to vote for the pro-abortion health care bill, he included some of the social provisions of the Act not limiting abortions into his pro-abortion compromise. They included adoption promotion and welfare provisions for pregnant women.
Still, the addition of the provisions wasn’t enough for 34 Democrats to support the legislation as some pro-life Democrats abandoned Stupak and DFLA by voting against the health care bill over its massive abortion funding and promotion. Even Lincoln Davis, the Tennessee congressman who sponsored the Pregnant Women Support Act for DFLA in the House, voted against the health care bill over its abortion funding.
That Nelson was the lawmaker who made it possible for passage of the pro-abortion bill in the Senate and Stupak the House member who secured passage in the lower chamber is not lost on pro-life advocates.
Phyllis Schlafly, president and founder of the conservative grassroots public policy organization Eagle Forum, said Stupak’s "sellout" revealed the "myth of the pro-life Democrat."
"Stupak and his Democrat followers have now clarified that you cannot be pro-life and be a Democrat. If abortion was truly their biggest issue, they wouldn’t willfully align themselves with the Party of Death," she said.
"This vote will expose the myth of the ‘pro-life Democrat.’ With this single vote, the Democratic Party will divide our nation into the Party of Death and the Party of Life, and future elections will never be the same," she concluded.
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