Do you like that headline? Because that’s what I’m feeling right now after the betrayal of my support for Democrats, now that the Stupak Amendment passed 240 to 194 and with 64 Democrats voting Yea.
It’s a fundamental part of our belief system in the Democratic Party, that women have a right to privacy in their reproductive health care decisions. We’ve fought long and hard to protect this right.
And now we’ve seen decades of work to protect this fundamental human right dashed by our own Democratic representatives
Be still my heart, did the Stupak Amendment outlaw abortion? The above certainly indicates that women will now, under the cover of darkness, be forced to go to back alley abortionists to terminate their pregnancies. According to Rayne, the passage of the Stupak Amendment rocks the very foundation of our democracy.
No, despite Rayne's illogical frothing, abortion is still legal. Women are still free to kill their unborn children but the Stupak Amendment says that I don't have to pay for it.
Step away from the Kool Aid, Rayne. It's turning your logic to mush.
h/t Memeorandum
After posting this I returned to Memeorandum where I saw that Legal Insurrection had posted on this same subject. Prof. Jacobson's opinion of the effects of the Stupak Amendment are closer to Rayne's than they are to mine. He writes:
64 Democrats voted in favor of the Stupak Amendment, which greatly expands the ban on federal funding of abortion, and reaches deep to make it difficult for women to obtain private health insurance covering abortion. 219 Democrats voted in favor of a final bill incorporating the amendment.As someone who is anti-abortion (I prefer "pro-life"), I don't view the passage of the Stupak Amendment as a victory. While I greatly appreciate that 64 Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against the use of federal funds for abortion, I don't hold any hope that this amendment will have any long term meaning.
This is a stunning development, one which anti-abortion activists could not have imagined just weeks ago. The Speaker of the House and Democratic majority, notwithstanding their lip service to women's reproductive rights, were willing to throw those rights aside to hand the Obama administration a temporary legislative victory.
Whether I like it or not, abortion is legal and will remain so. Federal funds or not, abortionists will continue to abort. The House gave the pro-life movement a victory only because they knew that the victory would be temporary and meaningless.
4 comments:
Jacobson was not talking about the actual legality of abortion, but rather the fact that a) House Dems were willing to put the issue on the table and b) that 64 voted down against an issue held dearly by the Dem Party.
The political fallout Jacobson is refering to is basically being illustrated by Rayne at Firedrake's reaction. This was a blow to the Dem Party politically, how substantial remains to be seen-- though I hazard to guess that it won't be very much in the short nor long term.
The Stupak Amendment is meaningless without the Senate passing on a lightly revised HR 3962 which most people, even the AP, are saying is unlikely. I'm not so sure about that assertion but...
The political significance is that House Dems so easily compromised on the subject in order to heed Obama's demand for health care "reform." They betrayed their constituents further, and in an unanticipated way, for the sake of an unpopular bill for the sake of Obama's image.
But isn't it easy to compromise knowing that in reality the amendment will never see the light of day? It would be like me giving up eating liver for Lent. Pretty meaningless when you consider that I have no plans to eat liver whether it is Lent or not.
True. However it's not the reality or pragmatism of the act that is politically important at this particular moment, but rather the image of the act and how people respond to it.
Many Dem voters believe that women's abortion rights are absolute and should not be put at any risk. Combine this with the fact that pro-abortion people feel that their pro-abortion laws are a hair's breadth away from being revoked and you can start to see the panic coming from this development.
The practical effects of the Stupak Amendment don't really matter. The problem the House Dems who voted for it is now having to explain to their constituents how they didn't really mean it-- all the while having Dem political opponents biting at their heels to replace them declaring that they would NEVER vote to compromise a woman's choice for ANY reason.
Spot-on comments, Carol.
Don't be fooled pro-lifers. Under Obamacare, abortions will be funded. Every word that comes out of the Leftists-in-charge's mouths is a lie—including 'and' and 'the'.
Quoted from and Linked to at:
'BUT AT LEAST WE GOT THE STUPAK AMENDMENT PASSED!'
It's Time To ROC 'N' ROLL: Restore Our Constitution & Restore Our Lost Liberties
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