Patrick Archbold on "The Great Pro-Life Outing"

Patrick Archbold writes at Creative Minority Report regarding what we learned about congressional pro-lifers during the health care debate:

... Every pro-lifer in congress, and I think particularly of Democrats, was put to the test in this process. Each of them showed once and for all whether they are truly pro-life or just party men.

This judgment was most definitive for pro-life Democrats in the Senate. Now we know there are none. When it came to choose between political expediency and life, life was a distant second...

Less obvious to some is the pro-life sellout of Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey. Unlike Senator Nelson, Casey's desire to be a party man did not allow him to hold out for goodies. Senator Casey took the lead in negotiating a compromise that would allow pro-life Democrats some semblance of pro-life cover by use of accounting tricks but wouldn't prohibit one taxpayer-funded abortion. You don't need to believe me on this, radical pro-abortion Senator Boxer tells you everything. Boxer told abortion supporters not to worry about the Casey compromise because “it’s only an ‘accounting procedure’ that will do nothing to restrict [abortion] coverage." Senator Casey is a disgrace to his father's memory and can never ever make a plausible case that he is pro-life again.

However, we learned some other things as well. In the House there is truly such a thing as a pro-life Democrat. Rep. Bart Stupak led that charge in the House for language that would prevent the funding of abortion. He fought for and accomplished amending the bill with the needed language. What is more, Reps Stupak, Driehaus, and a handful of other Democrats made it clear that they would never support a final bill without that language and under immense political pressure they stuck to their guns. In fighting for what is right in the face of strong opposition from their own party, these Democrats have proven that they are truly pro-life and may God bless them for what they did and are doing...

(emphasis added)