Pro-Life Works: Stupak-Pitts 2.0

May 10, 2010

Stupak-Pitts Amendment 2.0

By Eric Brown

Membership Services Associate

On April 22, Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA) introduced The Protect Life Act in Congress.  The bill is effectively identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment the Republican lawmaker co-authored with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) last year.  The legislation would prohibit, clearly and concretely, subsidized abortion in the new medical and insurance reform laws and explicitly protect health care professionals from being penalized for refusing to participate in abortions.  If enacted, the bill will ensure Pro-Life measures endure via statutory law and thereby correct the deficiencies of the abortion-related Executive Order signed by President Obama.

Representative Pitts, as he introduced the bipartisan legislation with both Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, stated:

     “The new health care law is riddled with loopholes that allow taxpayer subsidies for

     coverage that includes abortion.  My new bill would extend longstanding policy by

     preventing federal dollars from being used to pay for abortion coverage. 

     I’m proud to have strong support from both sides of the aisle.  I never want protecting

     Life to be a partisan issue.”

Presently, only Pro-Life Democrats who voted against the health care bill have co-sponsored Pitts’s new bill.  Those who voted for the bill, including Representative Bart Stupak, have not endorsed the legislation—which they voted for in November in the form of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment—nor have they made any public statements about it.

The Protect Life Act, politically speaking, faces a number of challenges.  Its predecessor, the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, secured a comfortable victory in the U.S. House.  This bill, if it manages to make it out of committee, should be able to obtain 218 votes for passage.  The problem, similar to abortion-related questions in the health care debate, is that the measure will be defeated soundly in the Senate.  So it is unlikely that a bill like this will pass until more Pro-Life Senators are elected later this year, or perhaps not until after the 2012 elections.

It is tremendously important, regardless of the circumstances, that this legislation is introduced into Congress and the issue of federally funded abortion be kept in the public eye.  The mandated creation of insurance exchanges, which were a particular concern regarding possible abortion funding, will not be implemented until 2013.  Given the short time span, it is critical for Congress to act to apply Hyde principles to the new health care law.