Earlier today, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) appeared on Fox And Friends and claimed that if the President tries to strip his abortion-restricting amendment from the House health care reform bill, “health care will not move forward.”
Stupak was asked to respond to David Axelrod’s statement that the President will work with the House and Senate to adjust the Stupak Amendment so that it doesn’t change the “status quo as it relates to the issue of abortion.”
In response, Stupak said that if that happens, “at least 10 to 15 to 20” Democrats would not vote for the bill. That would have tipped the scales on the House vote.
The pro-choice people were the ones who wanted a vote. They insisted on a vote. We gave them the vote, we won fair and square.
But now, Stupak said, “they’re trying to find every way they can to remove the provision from the legislation, and that’s not what this country’s about. The majority has spoken. Most people agree. Do not use public funds for abortion.”
He also claimed that without the votes of “right-to-life Democrats, health care never would have passed the House of Representatives.”
That is why, according to Stupak, the amendment will not be stripped: “You’re just not going to summarily start dismissing amendments, which the majority of the House of Representatives wanted.”
He concludes that if they do, they’re going to have “a real difficult time trying to get the health care legislation out of the Senate.”
