Representative Stupak Points Fingers, but Blame for Injecting Abortion Rests Squarely on his Shoulders

Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) is reportedly resuming talks with House leaders in his effort to include restrictive abortion provisions in the healthcare reform bill. The news comes after Rep. Stupak threatened to block the legislation by holding up 11 votes unless lawmakers include the specific restrictions to abortion coverage that he proposed. But the President's recent proposal already includes regressive anti-abortion measures authored by Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and passed by the Senate late last year. Yesterday, he defended his hard-line position in an Associated Press article. He denied criticism that he is allowing his personal opposition to abortion to jeopardize health reform and accused pro-choice groups of attempting to make the bill a vehicle to expand abortion rights, "They injected it into the debate. Everyone thinks I did; I did not." Nancy Northup, President of the Center for Reproductive Rights, has this response.

By CRR, USA.

Human rights Policy Resource.