Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 1:06am

Stupak Deal with Obama, The End of the Pro Life Democrat?

    US Catholic Bishops: Executive Order Deal A Non-Starter:

    We’ve consulted with legal experts on the specific idea of resolving the abortion funding problems in the Senate bill through executive order. We know Members have been looking into this in good faith, in the hope of limiting the damage done by abortion provisions in the bill. We believe, however, that it would not be fair to withhold what our conclusion was, as it may help members in assessing the options before them:

    “One proposal to address the serious problem in the Senate health care bill on abortion funding, specifically the direct appropriating of new funds that bypass the Hyde amendment, is to have the President issue an executive order against using these funds for abortion. Unfortunately, this proposal does not begin to address the problem, which arises from decades of federal appellate rulings that apply the principles of Roe v. Wade to federal health legislation. According to these rulings, such health legislation creates a statutory requirement for abortion funding, unless Congress clearly forbids such funding. That is why the Hyde amendment was needed in 1976, to stop Medicaid from funding 300,000 abortions a year. The statutory mandate construed by the courts would override any executive order or regulation. This is the unanimous view of our legal advisors and of the experts we have consulted on abortion jurisprudence. Only a change in the law enacted by Congress, not an executive order, can begin to address this very serious problem in the legislation.”

    Richard Doerflinger
    U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

  • In deal with Stupak, White House announces executive order on abortion (Washington Post):

    Resolving an impasse with anti-abortion Democrats over the health-care reform legislation, President Obama announced Sunday that he will be issuing an executive order after the bill is passed “that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion,” according to a statement from the White House.

    “I’m pleased to announce we have an agreement,” Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said at a news conference announcing the deal.

  • “I think we’re witnessing Bart Stupak write the obit for the concept of the “pro-life Democrat” – Kathryn Jean Lopez (National Review).

Further analysis of the text of the order:

  • “So what could the White House possibly give Stupak that would not be thrown out by any federal judge in a second?” Yuval Levin:

    Looking at the executive order (which you can read here), the answer is clearly nothing. The executive order quite literally does nothing that the Senate bill does not already do, and it is careful to say as much. It offers a kind of narrative of what champions of the bill claim it does with regard to abortion (claims that Rep. Stupak among others has disputed for months), and then says the executive branch will make various people aware of this understanding of what the law says. It orders no action (only the usual promulgation of regulations the law requires anyway) and offers no interpretation beyond that.

    If Rep. Stupak and his fellow pro-life Democrats were not satisfied with the protections against taxpayer funding of abortion in the Senate bill (as they rightly were not), there is simply nothing in the text of the order that should change their minds.

  • Executive Order Hijinks Andy McCarthy:

    The Susan B. Anthony List observation that EOs can be rescinded at the president’s whim is of course true. This particuar EO is also a nullity — presidents cannot enact laws, the Supreme Court has said they cannot impound funds that Congress allocates, and (as a friend points out) the line-item veto has been held unconstitutional, so they can’t use executive orders to strike provisions in a bill. So this anti-abortion EO is blatant chicanery: if the pro-lifers purport to be satisfied by it, they are participating in a transparent fraud and selling out the pro-life cause.

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Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:26pm

Lopez is correct.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:30pm

Stupak is either an idiot which I doubt or completely mendacious which I suspect is closer to the case. In any event, he has destroyed his credibility as a pro-lifer.

Anthony
Anthony
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:34pm

It’s all so tragic I can only laugh.

Something big in this country is on the horizon, and its not going to be good for anyone with a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ next to their name. There is a horrendous reality that this country will be drastically and negatively different by 2020.

Joe Hargrave
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:36pm

What a disappointment he turned out to be. I really admired his courage and conviction.

That he would trade away his convictions for this handful of magic beans is really just depressing.

Time to get started on nullification.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:36pm

The Susan B. Anthony List on this fake deal:

“An executive order on abortion funding would do nothing to fix the problems presented by the current health care reform legislation that the House is considering today. The very idea is a slap in the face to the pro-life movement and should be offensive to all pro-life Members of Congress. An executive order can be rescinded at any time at the President’s whim. The courts could and have a history of trumping executive orders.

“If this was a sincere attempt to meet pro-life concerns then you would hear the cry of pro-choice Members and groups. Rather Rep. Diana Degette, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus told The Huffington Post on Saturday that ‘If there was an executive order saying they weren’t going to use federal funds in the bill to pay for abortions that would be fine with me, because we’ve stipulated to that even though we don’t like it, That’s the compromise we came to way back in July.’

“In the end, no pro-life Member of Congress could, in good conscience, play politics with the lives of hundreds of unborn children. If they do, there will be a quick downhill slide to defeat on Election Day.”

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:43pm

Linda Goldthorpe is Stupak’s likely opponent in the Fall. Assuming she wins the primary I’ll be sending her a hundred bucks.

http://www.lindaforcongress.com/issues/right-to-life

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:44pm

I agree with Donald, the concept/idea of a pro-life Democrat is gone. Finished.

Stupak got his bag of silver.

daledog
daledog
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:50pm

Tito,
Just figuring that out now, huh?

restrainedradical
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:53pm

Stupak said the bill had enough votes without the Stupak 7. If that’s the case, this is the best deal pro-lifers could’ve gotten.

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:54pm

Daledog,

Someone as dense as I am figure things out eventually.

I am still much a like a child, I believe a man’s word at face value.

I’d make a terrible politician.

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:54pm

RR,

For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?

–Holy Gospel of Saint Matthew 16:26

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 3:57pm

“If that’s the case, this is the best deal pro-lifers could’ve gotten.”

Nothing is rarely a good deal for the recipient restrainedradical and the is what Stupak got. An Executive Order cannot contradict a law passed by Congress. If Stupak believes that he got anything from this charade other than the lasting enmity of the vast majority of all pro-lifers, than he is an utter fool, which I doubt.

Eric Brown
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:00pm

To be fair — elected officials are hardly ever as strident, passionate, and committed to any issue as are those fighting in the trenches. That said, there is very few members of Congress who are as pro-life as non-elected pro-life Americans. Given the fact that someone fails to live up to their own principles and standards, that is a moral failing, but that hardly negates the validity of their political philosophy.

In fact, for the number of pro-life Democrats in this country and the two I’ve talked to in the last hour troubled by the latest news hardly means in my view that being a pro-life Democrat is now an oxymoron. If it is, then I am an oxymoron and I am a counter-cultural warrior — to hell with the status quo.

daledog
daledog
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:04pm

K-Lo says:
“I think we’re witnessing Bart Stupak write the obit for the concept of the “pro-life Democrat”

There seems to be a never-ending shortage of dopey Catholics who will fall for the next pro-life democrat. Republicans are icky and mean, you see.

Eric Brown
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:10pm

Seriously, there are still pro-life Democrats voting against the legislation and are not convinced of the current strategy that Stupak and a few other Democrats have co-signed themselves onto.

I think they deserve to not catch the heat.

Henry Karlson
Henry Karlson
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:10pm

Christopher, let us look at the discussion on executive decisions a bit:

Unfortunately, this proposal does not begin to address the problem, which arises from decades of federal appellate rulings that apply the principles of Roe v. Wade to federal health legislation. According to these rulings, such health legislation creates a statutory requirement for abortion funding, unless Congress clearly forbids such funding. That is why the Hyde amendment was needed in 1976, to stop Medicaid from funding 300,000 abortions a year.

So, let’s see, Hyde was seen as good enough in a previous time, when the question of “Hyde could be over-ruled and rejected in the future” remained. In other words, we see here an argument can be built upon acceptance of Hyde itself — it has been used to justify all kinds of things under Bush’s rule, for example. Hyde was protecting everything, so Bush’s budgets didn’t get such a serious questioning — even when he gave an increase of funding to groups like Planned Parenthood. So, it seems that Hyde was good enough for many of the voices now speaking out against it’s application now. Seems clear that something is wrong here.

Now, let us look further. We will begin to see it is an issue of advice given to the bishops. There is no charism given to bishops in selecting the best advisers nor any given to the advisers as to what is best (look to the child abuse scandal for proof of this). The fact that we are being told they reject such a move is from advisers indicates the kind of authority by which this decision is made: it is one which is open to debate and question and disagreement. Hence we read:

The statutory mandate construed by the courts would override any executive order or regulation. This is the unanimous view of our legal advisors and of the experts we have consulted on abortion jurisprudence.

So it is not a top-down proof that executive decisions are not appropriate. Indeed, without giving full details about who all these advisers are and what they all have said and why they said what they said, we are going on a very low level of teaching authority based upon an interpretation of matters outside of competence of bishops.

—-

“When the hierarchy is faced by a conflict of opinions in the church, it does not always succeed in achieving a perfectly adequate response. Broadly speaking, two kinds of mistake are possible – excessive permissiveness and excessive rigidity. It is hard to know which of the two errors has done more harm.”

“We must recognize, therefore, that there can be such a thing in the church as mutable or reformable teaching. The element of mutability comes from the fact that such teaching seeks to mediate between the abiding truth of the gospel and the socio-cultural situation at a given time and place.”

“Did Vatican II teach the legitimacy of dissent from non-infallible teaching? It did so implicitly by its action, we may say, but not explicitly by its words. The theological commission responsible for paragraph 25 of the Constitution of the Church refused to make any statement, one way or the other, about dissent.”

“A step beyond the council was taken by the German bishops in a pastoral letter of September 22, 1967, which has been quoted on several occasions by Karl Rahner. This letter recognized that in its effort to apply the gospel to the changing situations of life, the church is obliged to give instructions that have a certain provisionality about them. These instructions, though binding to a certain degree, are subject to error. According to the bishops, dissent may be legitimate provided that three conditions are observed. (1) One must have striven seriously to attach positive value to the teaching in question and to appropriate it personally. (2) One must seriously ponder whether one has the theological expertise to disagree responsibly with ecclesiastical authority. (3) One must examine one’s conscience for possible conceit, presumptuousness, or selfishness. Similar principles for conscientious dissent had already been laid down by John Henry Newman in the splendid chapter on Conscience in his Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (1874).”

“There is always a temptation for church authorities to try to use their power to stamp out dissent. The effort is rarely successful, because dissent simply seeks another forum, where it may become even more virulent. To the extent that the suppression is successful, it may also do harm. It inhibits good theology from performing its critical task, and it is detrimental to the atmosphere of freedom in the church. The acceptance of true doctrine should not be a matter of blind conformity, as though truth could be imposed by decree. The church, as a society that respects the freedom of the human conscience, must avoid procedures that savor of intellectual tyranny.

Where dissent is kept within the bounds I have indicated, it is not fatal to the church as a community of faith and witness. If it does occur, it will be limited, reluctant, and respectful.”

Avery Dulles http://www.vatican2voice.org/8conscience/dulles.htm

Henry Karlson
Henry Karlson
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:12pm

K-Lo talking about being pro-life: hilarious.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:14pm

Karlson taking about being pro-life: barf worthy.

restrainedradical
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:18pm

If the bill had enough votes without the Stupak 7, the executive order saves pro-lifers some face.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:21pm

“If the bill had enough votes without the Stupak 7, the executive order saves pro-lifers some face.”

Appearing to be an utter fool restrainedradical saves no any face. By definition any one trusting in this exectutive order from the most pro-abort president in our nation’s history is an utter fool.

Kevin in Texas
Kevin in Texas
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:25pm

Seems to me that if the bill had enough votes w/out the Stupak 7, then no executive order would have been proffered.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:35pm

I think they deserve to not catch the heat.

They can catch the heat for what they did not do to repair the financial system while they were needlessly chuffering about medical insurance and what they did do to make our public finances resemble those of Greece.

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:38pm

I wonder if the U.S. bishops should be held partially responsible for the passage of this bill? They did lobby VERY hard to get it to this point, not knowing if they would get the wording they wanted.

daledog
daledog
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:47pm

Tito,
They ought to be held responsible. These fools have been playing footsie with liberal politics for much too long. One day is too long as far as I am concerned. It seems to me that their plate is full with their own problems.

RL
RL
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:49pm

No Tito, the bishops lobbied for something to address the medical needs of those who can ill afford proper care. That is a legitimate concern and there are many ways to work toward it. The problem is that what the current congress and president offers as a solution. A solution that many believe will cause more harm than good, plus has all the unpleasantness of what that party stands for like considering the killing of the unborn to be health care. It’s not really within the competence of the bishops to speak to whether any given policy is unworkable or will bust the nation economically, but they’re well within their competence to discuss the morality of certain policies – to define what they are lobbying for when they say appropriate health care for all (they’re including the unborn, the elderly, and the infirm).

restrainedradical
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 4:59pm

Yes, lobbying for the poor should not go unpunished.

Joe Hargrave
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:08pm

Oh stop hiding behind the poor.

This monstrous bill will ensure that many thousands of poor children would would have otherwise been born because their mother’s can’t afford abortions will now be sliced and diced in the womb. It’s poor children that suffer the most from government funded abortion.

daledog
daledog
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:12pm

Restrained,
How silly. You care about the poor, huh? Give more. Work extra hours so that you can give more. Encourage others to give more. No need to lobby Caesar. Gifts from Caesar always have strings attached. Do you feel better about yourself when you can force others to give more?

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:14pm

I think the bishops should be held somewhat responsible.

Let’s see if they work equally as hard to get this “law” revoked.

I doubt that resolve will be as diligent.

Paul Primavera
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:15pm

Here’s the bottom line: you can’t be Democrat and a legitimate orthodox Catholic – period. You maybe can be a Republican. It’s bets however to be a member of the Constitution Part because their platform is closest to the teaching of Holy Mother Church though they won’t be USCCB approved because they don’t believe in all this social justice, common good nonsense and free health care for illegal immigrants. Personal responsibility goes with person liberty and that’s a lesson lost on most Catholics for the past 50 years. Pelosi, Biden, Leahy and all the rest of the Catholic apostates will continue to receive Holy Communion and nothing the USCCB says or does means a damn.

Every single liberal politician has got to be publicly excommunicated and the false gospel of social justice and peace at any price has got to be jettisoned. Until that happens, the Church in America is a worthless collection of dirty old gay men at 3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington DC 20017-1194 playing at religion.

Paul Primavera
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:16pm

You guys simply don’t like the truth. Moderate away. God will have to sweep the liberals aside in His wrath. That’s the only way you’ll learn. The only way.

R.C.
R.C.
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:22pm

The Executive Order is already null and void:

1. As an executive order, it is secondary in power to any law of the land as interpreted by the courts — unless the legislative and judicial branches have just ceded its power to the executive, and we are in a dictatorship.

2. As an executive order, it is binding only on the activity of the executive branch, not on the private providers who would provide abortions.

3. Roe v. Wade obliges any legislation offering medical benefits to cover abortion unless some section in that legislation, such as the Hyde amendment, specifically excludes abortion. This legislation lacks the Hyde exclusion; therefore, this legislation falls under the Roe requirement. The Executive Order, even if it were not null and void, is written not to match the Hyde Amendment language, but rather to match the Senate legislation language which, as we all know, falls short of Hyde.

As such, the order offers no prevention of federally funded abortion even if it bore any authority.

4. And of course, Obama will deep-six the executive order whenever he might find it convenient. If somehow it is not a nullity, he will do so: He has never claimed to be pro-life. And if it is not a nullity, he will not need to vacate it, for it will have accomplished its intended goal without costing him the support of NARAL.

Of course, if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, none of this would be a problem.

But we all know, don’t we, that it’s foolish for pro-lifers to harp so much on the need to overturn that decision.

It’s counterproductive. It uses up resources that could be more profitably spent courting centrist Democrats and exploring our common ground.

We know that, this late in the day, it is no longer time for concern about Supreme Court justices and the presidents who select them; it is time to focus on new tactics involving engagement with pro-life Democrats.

That’s the lesson we learned, back during the 2008 election cycle.

Everyone remember that?

Let’s also keep in mind another lesson we learned that year: “Signing statements” are a tyrannical overreach of executive power in which George W. Bush altered the meaning of Congressional legislation at signing, a risky proposition and bad precedent which clearly indicated the need to switch parties in the White House for awhile, lest the occupant of the People’s House start to think his authority trumped that of the legislative branch.

Must remember that. That was one of those timeless truths for the ages.

I’ll lay aside my trowel, now: Whatever Babylonian tower we’re building in this country is already in danger of collapse from the sheer weight of the irony.

Joe Hargrave
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:27pm

Good post R.C.

We do need to overturn Roe and we do need to reject signing statements. If I didn’t understand it before, I sure as heck understand it now.

I think the next step is nullification at the state level.

Eric Brown
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:30pm

“Here’s the bottom line: you can’t be Democrat and a legitimate orthodox Catholic – period.”

I beg to differ.

Joe Hargrave
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 5:41pm

Paul,

You will only be moderated if your comment violates our rules for comments.

restrainedradical
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 6:19pm

Do you feel better about yourself when you can force others to give more?

Yes.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 6:26pm

Yes, lobbying for the poor should not go unpunished.

Yeah, the poor will do real well after a sovereign default.

Jim
Jim
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 7:36pm

He never planned on fighting. Rep. Bart Stupak speaking in Cheboygan, MI

Annely
Annely
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 8:30pm

The bishops must take a large amount of blame for this monstrous piece of legislation for several reasons:

1. Failure to excommunicate pro-abortion politicians and force them to choose between their pro-abortion positions and their desire to receive the sacraments. (This has been going on for four decades)

2. The Bishops’ push for “universal health care.”

The big question is: why did the bishops stay on board with this legislation as long as they did?

The only answer that makes sense is that the bishops favor socialism… big government programs as solutions to their “social justice” aims.

If this means invasive government intrusion into our lives, so be it. If it means massive tax increases, so be it. If it means wealth redistribution, so be it.

When it was obvious to many of us that the bill was unacceptable on so many fronts, one could only wonder why the bishops continued to push for it so hard, as long as they got their three concessions (abortion, conscience, immigrants).

I am saddened, disgusted, and disheartened by the bishops’ push for socialized medicine. How can I have respect for them? Happily, my faith is firmly in Jesus Christ, no matter what the American church’s hierarchy says or does.

daledog
daledog
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 8:44pm

Restrained,
I fear people like you.

Donna V.
Donna V.
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 9:20pm

Restrained,
I fear people like you.

Indeed. Restrained reveals his/her petty little totalitarian heart, mistaking the desire to rule and coerce others for “compassion.” If a majority of people in this country think in those terms, democracy is doomed. But I don’t think they do (thank God) and I don’t believe we are doomed yet. There will be a reckoning in November. Those of us who attended tea parties, called our Congressmen, and donated to those who opposed this monstrosity of a bill are not going away and we will not forget the open contempt the Democratic Party has shown toward us. I have sometimes voted Democrat in local elections – never again.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 9:25pm

Obama has now done something I didn’t think would ever be possible: make me more ashamed to be an Illinois resident than Governor Hairdo ever did. (Speaking of The Hair, did Trump fire him from “Celebrity Apprentice” yet?) If it hadn’t been for our crooked Chicago machine and pathetic, desperate joke of a GOP organization, he might never have been elected Senator and none of this would have happened.

Anthony
Anthony
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 9:34pm

Well, Mr. R. Radical was merely telling the truth: he does not believe in the commandment “thou shalt not steal,” because that is exactly what forcing others to be virtuous inevitably involves. In a bizarre way that puts him in a better place than the G.O.P. who are still somehow convinced that their thefts are not as terrible because they simply love America more, or some nonsense.

For anyone who is appalled at what is happening right now: Don’t worry. Economics will win. We should just pray that people aren’t hurt when that terrible day comes.

Donna V.
Donna V.
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 9:37pm

Donald: Stupak’s likely GOP opponent in the November is a conservative pro-life physician named Dan Benishek. His Facebook page is growing by the minute.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=share&gid=287806148754

His site has an address. I never heard of the man until about 20 minutes ago. I’m writing him a check tonight.

As for Stupak, well, he got his 30 pieces of silver:

“U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) announced three airports in northern Michigan have received grants totaling $726,409 for airport maintenance and improvements. The funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration.”

Betraying your conscience for Wales is one thing, but for three airports in the UP? Now there’s a cheap date.

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 10:43pm

Democrats for Death is more apropos.

It’s “Game On” for me and the bishops.

The USCCB is in for some heavy fire coming my way.

The deaths of many innocent unborn children will be on their hands.

RL
RL
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 10:59pm

Tito, why would you want to pit yourself against the vicars of Christ? It doesn’t seem like a terribly wise idea. Besides, they did not vote for this legislation, nor did they support it. They were one of the few voices saying it was unacceptable, and reminding people that while trying to ensure everyone gets medical care whether they can afford it or not is a a good, that it can’t come at the expense of the most vulnerable.

The behavior of Catholics who put the Democratic agenda above concerns for life is upsetting, but that wasn’t the bishops – the bishops took a pounding from them!

Tito Edwards
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 11:07pm

RL,

I agree with what you are saying.

Though too many times is seems that the USCCB is just another wing of the Democratic Party rather than vicars of Christ.

With Democratic Pro-Abort operatives infesting the USCCB along with atheists that endorse anti-Catholic films, and our donations going to abortion facilities and gay marriage advocates (do I need to continue?, there’s more…)

RL
RL
Sunday, March 21, AD 2010 11:16pm

I’m not blind to some of the dysfunction within the organization. But let’s be clear, those issues are usually caused by the bureaucrats within. Yeah, some aspects of the USCCB need to be looked at and overhauled, but the bishops themselves got involved in this one – and in real time – and offered solid and informed guidance, holding principles of justice and moderation above their own desires to see some sort of reform. We can and should be very proud of the prophetic witness they gave throughout this process. This ain’t the 1975 NCCB anymore!

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