Praise be to Jesus, Allah, or any prophet of your choice, for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and his Senate sidekick Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), both friends to fetuses everywhere. The Democratic legislators restored every voter's favorite deal-breaker back to the spotlight. I, for one, had been missing the rhetoric.
We all remember the Religious Right's exasperation over Notre Dame's commencement invitation to President Baby Killer last spring. And for months now I have been pining for someone to drag Sonia Sotomayor back and ask her: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like abortion?"
Somebody, maybe it was the bartender on Cheers, once said, "Ask and ye shall receive." And out of nowhere came Rep. Stupak's anti-choice amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act. It was here to hijack health care and, depending who you talked to, either save it by allowing the pro-life crew to vote yay on health care reform and still sleep at night, or kill it because the pro-choice crowd can't stand for this 21st century Hyde Amendment further reducing the number of women with a choice.
The Hyde Amendment, a 1976 pro-life response to Roe v. Wade that informs policy to this day, forbids the use of federal money for abortion services. The only direct and logical result of this anti-choice amendment, of course, is to restrict abortion to the Americans who can afford it. Examples of those affected by the Hyde Amendment include US military personnel and their families, Peace Corps volunteers, many Native Americans and others who rely on the federal government for their health insurance. The Stupak Amendment targets those same demographics.
Over in the Senate's bill, Ben Nelson's was the crucial 60th vote to squeak health care through, before the Massachusetts special election to replace Senator Ted Kennedy ushered in Republican Scott Brown, soon turning 60 to 59. See, Massachusetts already has its own nearly-universal health care coverage; the other 49 states aren't their concern. So, after Massachusetts voted to end the Liberal Lion's dream, now the deceased senator of half a century can only look down on his old state, and his very own senate seat, as the one to likely dash the health care reform he hoped to leave as his enduring legacy.
It may be hard to imagine people who take pride in the United States being the last member of the industrialized world remaining indifferent to health care coverage for those on the bottom rungs of our economic ladder, but, here we are. Obamacare was actually and finally leading us along the initial steps in the universal direction. As it turns out, though, there's at least one devil in the details.
Mr. Stupak's successful amendment to House Resolution 3962 prohibits any insurance plan of the divisive public option from offering coverage for abortion. The Senate version allows for no actual public option, but Mr. Nelson's maneuvering still ended with potential abortion restrictions on any health plan incorporating public money. Regardless, it could be D.O.A. now that Massachusetts voted to posthumously extend its middle finger to Senator Kennedy by sending Scott Brown to the US Senate. The staunch opponent of any federal funding for abortion coverage, Mr. Brown goes to Washington with his self-proclaimed mandate to kill health care reform, as well as thousands of uninsured citizens annually, living in states outside his own. Collateral damage in this cold war.
Abortion may seem to have no logical place in a conversation to decide who gets health insurance, but it is a big deal, perhaps the big deal. But abortion isn't a crime in this country. Even the Republican National Committee had abortion coverage included in its own health care plan until the Stupak controversy exposed the hypocrisy. For years an official plank in that party platform has clearly stated, "Abortion is really, very, extremely unethical, immoral and just plain awful." Or something like that.
The US may be the world's last superpower. Its military, popular culture, and even financial institutions may still be No. 1. But no matter our role on the world stage, there have always been certain unavoidable facts of national life in these United States to shame or baffle the best of us.
A 3rd baseman earned a salary of $33 million this past season. A recent blockbuster movie here in the country that invented the automobile, the airplane and the Internet, was a romantic fantasy constructed upon a love triangle between a teenage girl and (I am not making this up) a vampire and a werewolf. And when tens of millions of citizens in the richest country on earth wake up feeling sick, there is nothing they can do about it. Congress can change that last one.
As long as Americans die because they don't have a doctor, we are not No. 1. Meanwhile, it is unconscionable for the health care debate to be contaminated by an unrelated matter. Deal-breaker, thy name is Stupak.
Ian Squires is a communications intern at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.