Word: stupak
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Indeed, up until the last week before the House vote on health reform, both Pelosi and Stupak thought they each had the votes to get their way on abortion. As a result, when Indiana Congressman Brad Ellsworth, a pro-life Democrat, tried to draft an amendment tightening the Capps language in the last weeks before the House vote, both sides attacked him. Planned Parenthood said the effort -- which attempted to strengthen the segregation of funds and ensure that no federal dollars could ever be designated to fund elective abortions in the exchange (which would include the public option) - could...
...After the House vote, President Obama, who had carefully kept his distance from the health care horse-trading, told ABC News that the Stupak language had to be altered. "There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo," he said. But at this point whether a workable compromise can be accomplished is unclear. (See what health care reform really means...
...Life Democrats Are Not All Alike In mid-June, Stupak and 18 other pro-life Democrats sent a letter to Pelosi warning that they could not vote for the bill that had been introduced unless it was changed to prevent taxpayer funding of abortion. (The original health reform bill introduced in the House contained no reference to abortion, which both pro-life and pro-choice activists read as allowing coverage of abortion through the so-called public option, a government-run alternative to private insurance plans that some individuals and small businesses would have access to.) They received no response...
...Overconfidence on Both Sides At the time, Stupak's opposition to the Capps amendment - he was suspicious of it because it had been drafted without his group's input, by a pro-choice Democrat no less - seemed unimportant. Democratic leaders thought their solution would allow them to cobble together enough pro-life votes, and they were convinced that the amendment had taken abortion off the table...
...punch took the life out of the Ellsworth amendment and denied pro-life Democrats the opportunity to vote for something less extreme than the final Stupak amendment. According to several members who voted for the Stupak amendment, they would have supported a more moderate compromise along the lines of the Ellsworth language if they had been given the chance. As it was, 10 of the 19 Democrats who signed the initial Stupak letter to Pelosi voted against health reform even after their demands on abortion were...