{"id":459459,"date":"2010-03-22T17:12:21","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T21:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reuters.com\/faithworld\/?p=12577"},"modified":"2010-03-22T17:12:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T21:12:21","slug":"stupak-now-target-of-all-sides-in-abortion-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/459459","title":{"rendered":"Stupak now target of all sides in abortion debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up until a few days ago\u00a0Bart Stupak<\/a>, an unassuming\u00a0Democratic congressman from Michigan, was a hero among American activists opposed to abortion rights (who refer to themselves as “pro-life”). This was because Stupak had managed to insert strong language in the House of Representatives version of the healthcare bill\u00a0aimed at preventing any federal tax\u00a0 funds from being used for abortion.<\/p>\n

What a difference a weekend makes.\u00a0President Barack Obama clinched the votes he needed to win passage for his healthcare overhaul on\u00a0Sunday\u00a0by winning over a handful of Democratic abortion rights opponents, led by Stupak, with the pledge of an executive order affirming restrictions on the use of federal funds for the procedure.<\/p>\n

\"USA-HEALTHCARE\/\"<\/p>\n

Stupak was suddenly a traitor to the cause, with barbs like “Judas” thrown his way on the blogosphere.\u00a0Randy Neugebauer<\/a>, a Republican congressman from Texas, \u00a0reportedly yelled “Baby killer!,” while Stupak explained why he was finally going to support the bill. Neugebauer was later\u00a0quoted as saying\u00a0he was referring to the bill and not Stupak himself, but that is the kind of emotional language one often hears in the\u00a0shouting matches on this issue.<\/p>\n

The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative group that works to get female opponents of abortion rights elected, said it no longer planned to give Stupak its annual “Defender of Life” Award on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“This Wednesday night is our third annual Campaign for Life Gala, where we were planning to honor Congressman Stupak for his efforts to keep abortion-funding out of health care reform. We will no longer be doing so. By accepting this deal from the most pro-abortion President in American history, Stupak has not only failed to stand strong for unborn children, but also for his constituents and pro-life voters across the country<\/em>,” its president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Family Research Council<\/a>, an influential evangelical political lobby group, also has Stupak and other\u00a0anti-abortion Democrats who supported the healthcare bill\u00a0in its sights.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the abortion divide, Stupak was already a political villian before Sunday’s vote and he remains cast in that role.<\/p>\n

“Number one on our list is Bart Stupak<\/em>,” said Elizabeth Shipp, political director of NARAl Pro-Choice America<\/a>, when asked\u00a0which candidates her group was targeting,<\/p>\n

Stupak has done a lot to stir up this most divisive of political\u00a0hornet’s nests. Small wonder he’s getting stung from all sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up until a few days ago\u00a0Bart Stupak, an unassuming\u00a0Democratic congressman from Michigan, was a hero among American activists opposed to abortion rights (who refer to themselves as “pro-life”). This was because Stupak had managed to insert strong language in the House of Representatives version of the healthcare bill\u00a0aimed at preventing any federal tax\u00a0 funds from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4675,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}