Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) appeared on Good Morning America, and told George Stephanopoulos that no deal has been made on the health care bill — but that he does want to vote for it.
Stephanopoulos asked about the idea floated by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), another pro-life Democrat, to hold a separate vote on reinstating the Stupak language on abortion insurance, as a whole different bill. Stupak said that this was one possibility — but he wanted to make sure such a bill would in fact be signed into law.
“Okay, we pass the bill, it has to go to the Senate. This is an enrollment corrections bill. It has to be passed before the president would sign the Senate bill. So there’s a long ways to go,” said Stupak. “And you know, dealing with the Senate has been unusually difficult these last two years, so I’m not a lot of confident it’s gonna go any farther than the House of Representatives.”
“There has to be a procedure here. We’re looking at different options, as you said,” Stupak also said. “As you know, I want to pass health care. I voted for it before. My group, we all voted for it before. We’d like to see health care, but there’s a principle that we do not want to cross. We want to continue protecting the sanctity of life. And that’s where we’re trying to hold to. We’re holding to that principle.”
“If they had the vote today, I’m still a no vote,” Stupak also said. “A lot of promises are made around this town. You gotta lock them down. And there has been no lockdown yet. We’re still negotiating. As you say, my group of 12 here, we can make the difference on this vote, but at the same time there’s a principle we’re standing up for. So we’re not, it’s been our position since last June 25, when we wrote the Speaker. So nothing’s really changed. We’re getting to the end, there’s always last-minute negotiations, we’re taking part in those negotiations, no deal is struck, our resolve is the same.”
Stephanopoulos asked what could be done to “lock down” Stupak’s vote. “Protect the sanctity of life, keep current law, no public funding for abortion,” said Stupak. “Let’s keep that principle intact, and you can probably get our vote — probably.”
Stupak smiled as he added the word “probably.”
