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| Courage in the House | ||
| Posted: 1-22-10 | ||
| By Rep. Trent Franks The Washington Times |
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Amidst numerous closed-door meetings to forge a compromise on the most far reaching piece of domestic legislation in a generation, the health care debate has repeatedly clashed on an unlikely sticking point: federal funding of abortion.
At the center of the furor is my colleague and friend; the pro-life Democratic Congressman from Michigan, Bart Stupak.
No other issue demonstrates just how radical the leaders of today’s Democrat party have become than their insistence to overturn 30 years of legislative precedent and make taxpayer funded abortions a key part of their health reform bill.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, three in four Americans oppose taxpayer funded abortions. They also want to see conscience protections for physicians preserved.
To achieve exactly that end, the Stupak Amendment, which preserves the longstanding bipartisan ban on federal funding of abortion, passed the House by a vote of 240 to 194. 64 Democrats, fully one quarter of the Democratic caucus, voted in favor of the amendment — making it the largest bipartisan majority of any vote in the entire health care debate.
But none of that matters in this Congress, because the far left leadership either bribes their Members with pork or brutalizes them by taking away seniority or campaign support if they refuse to cooperate with their extreme liberal agenda. For many members, the constant, relentless pressure from within one's own party ultimately becomes more than they can endure.
In the Senate, judging by Senator Landrieu’s "deal", the going rate for such leadership payoffs is around $300 million. In the House, the exact dollar figure is less clear, but the pressure is intense; Speaker Pelosi managed to pass the healthcare bill in the House by a margin of only five votes, which included Stupak and several of his supporters who insisted on the pro-life amendment as a condition for their support.
The surprise then in all of this is not that there are legislative bribes taking place. That we see. No, the surprise, or rather mystery, in all of this is the steadfastness shown by Congressman Stupak and his pro-life House Democrat supporters in the face of all this pressure. Stupak and his colleagues have pledged that they will vote against any final version of the bill that does not include the Stupak amendment language. It seems that Pelosi’s tools of bribes and bludgeoning don’t work on Stupak. What’s going on?
I would suggest the answer is something neither Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, nor President Obama even understand.
In simple terms, most members Speaker Pelosi is used to dealing with are mere politicians; public officials whose highest aspiration is re-election. The votes of such individuals nearly always have a price— figuratively or literally— even when the issue is as important as the protection of innocent unborn life.
With Bart Stupak and his allies, Nancy Pelosi is dealing with a different sort of representatives: those whose hearts are truly committed to protecting those who have no voice. Such representatives are animated by a completely different level of conviction than mere politicians, and refuse to betray the helpless; even in the face of blatant political bludgeoning, and even if doing so comes with great political and personal costs.
What then causes someone to have a heart that burns with the conviction to defend unborn life? What transforms what may start as a placid set of beliefs into passionate immoveable convictions? What cements those convictions so deeply in the heart of an individual that even the most unabashed bullying from some of the world's most powerful political leaders can't shake them loose?
For some, that transformation may occur in a single moment or experience, but it usually involves a vivid recognition of the preciousness of life and of the splendor of God’s creation. For others, it may be the result of a slow-moving process that takes place over months or even years. But in all cases, the experience is life-changing.
For me, that experience was watching a movie over 30 years ago called Assignment: Life, a film which revealed to me the horror and tragedy of abortion, both for unborn babies and their mothers. From that moment my soul was indelibly marked by the conviction that I would give my life to the cause of protecting innocent unborn children.
I suspect in the case of Bart Stupak, it is more than just that he is Roman Catholic, grew up in a large family, and used to be a sheriff. All these are are significant; but in truth, we will probably never know the full answer. What stirs in a man's heart are indeed, as Solomon stated, "deep waters."
But regardless of the ultimate source of their inner transformation, I am convinced that future generations will look back in gratitude that Stupak and his band of brothers had the courage to stand against a giant political machine for the sake of millions of our tiny fellow citizens who— but for men and statesmen such as Congressman Bart Stupak— would have no voice in this world.
Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican, represents the 2nd District of Arizona in the U.S. Congress. He is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Judiciary Committee and vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerical and Administrative Law. ### |
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