In an analysis solicited by a blogger for the National Catholic Reporter and posted on that paper's website yesterday, National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) Legislative Director Douglas Johnson asserts that last week's election results represent a strong repudiation of lawmakers who voted for the health care law enacted last March, and discredit the attempts of certain organizations to whitewash the pro-abortion components of that bill.
Hiding behind a hollow executive order signed by President Obama (which, as Johnson points out, even "the president of Planned Parenthood accurately dismissed as 'a symbolic gesture'), two organizations in particular -- Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) and Catholics United -- attempted to provide political cover for a group of Democrat "pro-life" lawmakers who flip-flopped and provided the votes that allowed the law to be enacted without effective pro-life language. As Johnson writes, the electorate was not fooled: "The bloc of Democrats who abandoned the pro-life movement to satisfy President Obama and Speaker Pelosi suffered severe losses. In all, at least a dozen House incumbents who had taken high-profile stands against federal funding of abortion, but who ended up voting for the health care law, were defeated by pro-life challengers (or, in Stupak's case, suddenly retired)." He also notes that, "[f]ar greater losses were sustained among the ranks of House Democrats who had seldom or never voted pro-life: upwards of 40 were replaced by firmly pro-life Republicans."
Johnson also points to a post-election poll conducted for National Right to Life by the Polling Company which asked: "'Did the issue of funding for abortion in the Obama health care law affect the way you voted in today's election?' 31% of voters responded in the affirmative -- 27% who said they voted "for candidates who opposed the health care law," and 4% who said they voted "for candidates who favored the health care law." In other words, 87% of the voters who said the issue mattered, voted in accord with the NRLC position."
Johnson wrote, "The election results were good in the Senate, as well, where the net shift in the pro-life direction will be from four to seven votes, depending on the issue. No senator is being replaced by a successor who has a weaker position on abortion. . . . "
Click here for the full text of Mr. Johnson's analysis can be found on the National Catholic Reporter blog of Michael Sean Winters.
Contact: Jessica Rodgers
Source: National Right to Life Committee
Publish Date: November 11, 2010
