Bart Stupak To Quit Congress

USAToday.com:

Rep. Bart Stupak, the Michigan Democrat at the center of the health care debate's battle over abortion, is going to announce his retirement today from the House.

The Associated Press is reporting that Stupak, a member of Congress for the last 18 years, will make his announcement at 12:30 p.m. today in Marquette, Mich. Stupak, 58, had been targeted for defeat by some anti-tax, anti-government Tea Party activists for his role in the health care fight.

Stupak was the leader of about 12 anti-abortion House Democrats who fought for language in the recently enacted health care law ensuring that federal funds would not be used to pay for the procedure. Stupak's group wanted to make sure that taxpayers would not pay for abortions in new government-funded health insurance exchanges or at community health centers that receive federal money.

In the bill that passed the House last month, the group settled for an executive order by President Obama that restated the principles of the so-called Hyde Amendment, which has been in force since 1976. That amendment prohibits federal funding of abortions and mainly applies to Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor.

Stupak's deal with the White House helped pave the way for House passage of health care, by a vote of 220-215. Obama signed the sweeping health care legislation, which would help insure 32 million Americans, last month.

A victory for the Tea Party? Or just the first of many casualties of ObamaCare's passage? Most likely both.

Bart Stupak Explains Why He Sold Out

RELATED: Obama Issues Low-Key Order On Abortions

Obama Signs Executive Order On Abortion To Accompany ObamaCare, Bart Stupak Signs On

FOXNews.com:

Pro-life Democrats have reached a deal with President Obama to ensure that no taxpayer money goes to abortion services, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who led Democratic lawmakers opposed to the Senate bill, said Sunday about an arrangement that appeared to cement passage of the massive insurance overhaul.

Stupak made the announcement surrounded by a handful of Democratic lawmakers who had held out their "yes" votes on the bill set for a vote on Sunday. The swing means a movement by as many as a dozen Democrats who had said they wanted stronger restrictions on abortion funding in the 10-year, $870 billion legislation.

"I'm pleased to announce that we have an agreement, and it's with the help of the president and the speaker we were able to come to an agreement to protect the sanctity of life in the health care reform. There will be no public funding for abortion in this legislation," Stupak said.

Stupak announced support for the bill as the White House issued its statement about the executive order.

The president "will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion," reads the statement from White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer.

Barring a last-minute miracle (where's Doug Flutie when you really need him?) all signs are a go for ObamaCare and Barack Obama, second term or no second term, has achieved his legacy.

Rachel Maddow Smears Bart Stupak, Cheerleads For Healthcare "Reform" Passage

Remember it's just FOX that cheerleads for the GOP, certainly MSNBC doesn't serve as an arm for the radical Left:

Consider the trashing of Bart Stupak, the Democratic congressman from Michigan. At this writing Stupak holds the future of the health-care legislation in his hands. He and other anti-abortion lawmakers are withholding votes needed for passage until Speaker Nancy Pelosi agrees to include an amendment that would withhold funding from insurance companies that include abortion among services insured.

Specifically, the Stupak amendment reads: “No funds authorized or appropriated by this Act (or an Amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion.”

Mad Progressives

The “any health plan” phrase is driving the progressives mad. Liberal TV talk-show host Rachel Maddow devoted a show to attacking Stupak and to underscoring that the amendment wouldn’t merely prohibit federal cash from subsidizing abortions. It would jeopardize entire funding streams for insurance companies should they offer abortions. Maddow and her producers seem to consider this infamy original to Stupak: making one practice so costly that the entire system rejects it.

As Maddow notes, the utility of a method like Stupak’s isn’t necessarily confined to health insurance. Such an amendment “could be hijacking anything.” The outrage.

The Stupak method is hardly original. Civil rights activists operating in the early 1970s included Title IX in federal legislation. The Title had a worthy goal: ensure that no one -- male or female, black or white -- “be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” That bit of language in the law gave rights activists the tool they needed to hijack.

Wow, she's obsessed. "Anti-abortion stunt"?!? So Stupak stands up for his beliefs by wanting to make sure that a notoriously deceitful, Dem-led Congress doesn't insert language forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions and Maddow resorts to childish insults and smear tactics to attack him...any wonder the Left constantly reminds us she's the best! But this is what Democrats who refuse to toe the line get in return. Any wonder why conservative Democrats are often afraid to speak out? For MSNBC and all the other yahoos on the Left ideology trumps party affiliation.

Democrat Congressman Bart Stupak Stands Up For Principles, Wants Abortion Out Of ObamaCare

NYTimes.com:

Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and a leader among House Democrats who oppose abortion rights, said on Thursday that President Obama needs to be “more flexible” on tightening abortion restrictions in the big health care legislation.

In a television interview, Mr. Stupak said that many House Democrats do not support the Senate version of the health care legislation that they would probably need to adopt before approving changes through a budget reconciliation measure.

“In the present form, the Senate health care bill is going nowhere in the House of Representatives,” Mr. Stupak said. “Not only do the members of the House of Representatives do not agree with the Senate bill — the process by which the Senate bill was passed, the special deals, there is no member that wants to vote for that.”

And he warned that House leaders had not yet explained the process by which House Democrats could approve both the Senate bill and a package of changes to it.

Finally, a Democrat standing up to liberal terrorism.