By Dave Andrusko

Parts Two and Three today are statements from pro-life PACs. You will want to read them. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.  Don't forget to check out www.nationalrighttolifenews.org.

You almost have to smile (to keep from crying). After figuratively parading across the stage, crowing about enactment of ObamaCare yesterday, today quietly and out of sight "President Obama makes good on a promise to anti-abortion Democrats Wednesday, signing an executive order in the afternoon stating that no funds from the health care overhaul may be used to finance abortions," according to the New York Times.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.)

Of course, Obama did nothing of the sort. Pretending that he has is part of the ongoing disinformation campaign intended to sell a measure that is widely distrusted by many Americans, including all pro-life Americans.

Pro-life PACs are not fooled. As you will read at the end of Part One and in Parts Two and Three, they are rescinding their support for formerly pro-life Democrats and/or are promising to work against their re-elections.

You would expect the Times, the pro-abortion newspaper of record, to serve as a megaphone for the malarkey of a pro-abortion Administration and a Congress led by powerful pro-abortion figures such as Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi. What escapes pro-lifers is that some erstwhile pro-life Democrats profess to believe that Obama's executive order makes everything hunky dory. Neither the man--Obama--nor legal precedent in anyway support such a rosy conclusion. In fact, just the opposite.

Obama is joined at the hip to the Abortion Lobby. He is going to vigilantly scan the horizon to ensure that no federal money is smuggled into the hands of Planned Parenthood? Please.

Planned Parenthood surely gets it: "Thanks to supporters like you, we were able to keep the Stupak abortion ban out of the final legislation and President Obama did not include the Stupak language in his Executive Order." [www.ppaction.org/network/hcr10fvng?source=hcr10fv_pphp]

And, of course, if there was anything to it--which there isn't--Obama could revoke the executive order at the drop of a hat. But even a minute and a half's reflection makes it clear that the executive order won't or can't change a thing.

During the weekend debate Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wi.) warned that his fellow members of the House "should not be fooled." He explained, "If an executive order moves the abortion funding in this bill away from where it is now, it will be struck down as unconstitutional because executive orders cannot constitutionally do that."

Prior to the vote Yuval Levin (writing on National Review Online over the weekend) amplified. He noted that legal precedents make it clear "that federal funds cannot be denied to the provision of abortion except by explicit legislative prohibition. That's why the Hyde amendment was necessary.

"But the Hyde amendment wouldn't apply to this bill," he added, "since it applies only to the annual HHS appropriations bill. Hence [Rep. Bart] Stupak's concern. So what could the White House possibly give Stupak that would not be thrown out by any federal judge in a second? Looking at the executive order, the answer is clearly nothing."

Levin added that "if Stupak and other anti-abortion Democrats were not satisfied with the protections against taxpayer funding of abortion in the Senate bill [as they rightly were not], there is simply nothing in the text of the order that should change their minds."

The repercussions have begun in earnest. In Part Two of TN&V we reprint a statement from RTL of Michigan PAC rescinding its endorsement of Rep. Stupak. In Part Three we reprint a statement from West Virginians for Life PAC announcing not only that it will not endorse either Rep. Alan Mollohan or Rep. Nick Rahall but will also "oppose them in their upcoming elections."

In addition, if you go to www.nationalrighttolifenews.org, you will read about how National Right to Life PAC has endorsed Republican Steve Chabot, citing, among other things, the support of incumbent Democrat Steve Driehaus for the pro-abortion health bill.

Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. Don't forget to check out www.nationalrighttolifenews.org.

Part Two
Part Three