As Obama and the Democrats defy the opinion of a majority of Americans in their attempt to ram their health care bill through Congress in an abuse of the budget reconciliation process, abortion, ironically, may be the stumbling block that shatters their machinations.  It would be eminently appropriate to see them hoist with the petard of one of their most defining tenets.  Today in Abortion still the stumbling block for ObamaCare, Ed Morrissey quotes an NPR column that states:

Of the remaining issues with the potential to bring down the entire health overhaul effort, the one that lawmakers fear most is abortion.

Abortion is such a politically hazardous issue that sponsors of both the House and Senate health bills have said their object was to maintain the status quo….

But keeping the health bills abortion-neutral has proved impossible. And now the abortion language in the Senate-passed bill in particular could threaten the strategy Democratic leaders hope to use to get a final measure to President Obama’s desk for a signature….

…the way they are hoping to finish work on their health overhaul is for the House to pass the Senate’s bill — abortion language and all. Then they plan to pass a second bill that will incorporate a number of compromises between the House and Senate. For that they’ll use the so-called budget reconciliation process that only requires 51 Senate votes.

But as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Tuesday, those compromises probably won’t include a change in abortion language. “In order to be in part of the budget bill, it has to be central to the budget. That’s the rule. And it’s a very strict rule,” she said.

Which means anti-abortion House Democrats who originally voted for the House health bill will likely face this choice: Vote for a Senate bill that’s more lenient on abortion or vote against health overhaul. And it will make it that much harder for House leaders to get the majority they need to pass the bill.

This afternoon Jim Geraghty has posted on health care vote counts, The Weekly Standard makes conjectures, and AllahPundit has this on Pelosi scrambling for votes in the House:

And the status quo, thanks to the pro-life objections of Stupak et al., means she’s probably 10-12 votes in the hole at the moment.

Tomorrow the Susan B. Anthony List will release poll results from districts in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana that are represented in Congress by Democrats who voted for the Stupak Amendment last year.

Respondents were asked whether they would “be more likely or less likely to vote for Congressman if he votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion.”

“Votes have consequences,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony List, “and representatives in Congress who ignore the will of their constituents do so at their own peril. These poll results will drive our investment in the next wave of pro-life grassroots mobilization in the Midwest.”

Abortion’s impact on the health care bill has implications for certain Republicans as well.  In December, Jennifer Rubin made this observation:

…we have heard a lot in the last year from some snooty ostensibly-conservative pundits who would like to rearrange the conservative coalition and dump social conservatives overboard. However, the health-care bill is as good an example as we will find as to why this is politically idiotic. Here we see that it is social conservatives who remain the last men and women standing against liberal economic- and social-engineering projects. The numbers may just not be there for Stupak to disrupt the juggernaut, but it is instructive that the final battle is likely to be over abortion subsidies, not taxes or any other economic issue. Perhaps it’s not a good idea for conservatives to tell some of their most stalwart allies to get lost.

Principles and morality are not just matters for philosophical discussion; they are the foundation for actions that have consequences for the vigor or demise of a society.  The choices Congress makes on health care continue to reveal their beliefs about life and liberty.   In December, Ben Nelson revealed what he truly believes about the value of the life of an unborn child as well as his beliefs about integrity.  Through their manipulations the Democrats have written in large letters the manifesto of their beliefs about liberty.

In these final days of their determination to force our nation onto a path of unwanted government control of our health care, I am reminded of the ending of the book of Deuteronomy.  After setting forth His commands to Israel, God tells them,

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

Congress is faced with a literal choice of life or death, and their choice has consequences for our present citizenry and for those who are yet unborn.

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H/T:  Human Events, Hot Air, NPR, National Review, The Weekly Standard, Christian News Wire, Commentary Magazine, Bible Gateway.