Stupak’s Abortion Fight Spills Onto the Campaign Trail

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Rep. Bart Stupak’s polarizing abortion fight has stalled the health care bill—and now it’s started to spill over into the midterm elections. Stupak has attracted a primary challenger who launched her campaign because of his anti-abortion stance. Now even moderate Democratic candidates are  speaking out against Stupak’s anti-abortion maneuvering, which has become a major roadblock to passing the bill. Rob Miller, who is running in what’s likely to be a competitive contest against Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson in South Carolina’s second district, said in a meeting this week with local Democrats that he would have opposed Stupak’s amendment to restrict abortion access in the House version of the bill.

“It’s an excessive piece of legislation that I think would strip from some areas—some of the life-saving aspects of the previous legislation,” Miller said on Tuesday. “I thought it was unnecessary, I think that’s the biggest thing for me. So I would have voted against it.”

Miller is a fairly moderate, fiscally conservative Blue Dog running in a conservative district that broke for McCain. His comments highlight just how extreme Stupak’s demands are. Though Miller hasn’t taken a vocal stance on abortion in the past—his campaign hasn’t yet responded to questions regarding his views on the issue—Miller is certainly drawing a bright line between himself and Wilson, whose campaign is hauling out the Republican attack line. “It’s up to folks to say whether they want government-funded abortions or not,” Brian DeRoy, the communications director for Wilson’s campaign, tells Mother Jones.

In just days after Wilson’s outburst during the State of the Union address, in which he accused the president of lying about the health reform bill, Miller raised over $1 million from the liberal netroots. After the massive influx of support, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sensed the chance for an upset and designated the race as a “Red to Blue” target. And Milller’s opposition to Stupak could now win him more support from liberal groups. “I was very encouraged,” said Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. “It’s absolutely exciting that people are stepping up to challenge [Wilson], especially those who are willing to recognize that women’s reproductive health care is health care.”

 

It looks as though Stupak could soon make a compromise on abortion in the health-care bill. But given the prolonged political firefight, the issue could continue to rear its head on the campaign trail—not the least for Stupak himself, who’s drawn a primary challenger who’s campaigning on his anti-choice intransigence.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate