Stupak Attacks Pro-Life Groups on Abortion Order, Defends Planned Parenthood
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 24, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Congressman Bart Stupak, apparently fed up with the massive criticism heaped on him from the pro-life community for his role in securing passage of the pro-abortion health care bill, is lashing out. He is attacking pro-life groups and is going as far as defending Planned Parenthood.
In an interview with the Washington Times on Tuesday, Stupak railed against pro-life groups and called them hypocrites.
Stupak said they are because they applauded President Bush’s 2001 executive order to prevent any new funding of embryonic stem cell research but are condemning this executive order.
"And as I said on the floor, the right to life groups applauded George Bush in 2007 [sic] when he did his executive order, and now we did our executive order, suddenly its not good enough? I believe some groups politicize life," Stupak alleged.
"The Democratic Congress passed [a bill] saying we’ll do embryonic stem cell research. Bush vetoed it in 2007. That same day he issued an executive order saying we will not do it, and all these groups applauded that he protected life," Stupak added in a Daily Caller interview. "So now President Obama’s going to sign an executive order protecting life and everyone’s condemning it. The hypocrisy is great."
"I question, did they want to protect the sanctity of life, or did they want to defeat health care?" he told The Daily Caller.
But pro-life groups say the comparison is errant because the executive order Bush signed did not relate to legislation but affected administrative regulations. Those, they say, can be changed by an executive order whereas federal law in the pro-abortion health care bill cannot.
Meanwhile, in new comments about the executive order Obama will sign, Stupak went as far as comparing it with executive orders concerning slavery.
"Throughout history, executive orders have been an important means of implementing public policy," Stupak said in a statement. "The most famous executive order was the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln in 1863."
Asked if Stupak, a Catholic, believed in "the primacy of the Pope over in Rome," he had to have the question explained to him.
"The Pope and the Catholic faith does not control Catholic legislators. We must vote reflective of our districts and our beliefs. When I vote pro-life, it happens to be my own personal belief," he said.
In his Times interview, Stupak also defended Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.
"Planned Parenthood does not do abortions…in my district. Planned Parenthood has a number of clinics in my district that provide health care for my people. Therefore, these clinics do quite well in my district, and I’m all for health care and extending it to everybody–access to health care, so that’s just another way," he said.
However, the Times notes that both Planned Parenthood abortion centers list abortion referrals on their web site of "services" provided.
Stupak told the Times that it is "not true" that he was going to vote for the pro-abortion health care bill no matter what language it ended up containing on abortion.
"With this whole debate for the last year, all my motives have been questioned, and I’m sure they’ll be questioned from now until the end of my days," he said.
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