After word broke that the Supreme Court agreed to take up the challenge to Obama’s health care law, the political left and right went into full swing trying to dig up reasons opposing justices should recuse him or herself for this decision; and Judicial Watch hit the mother lode.
Judicial Watch, a non-partisan organization, which claims as its mission to “promote transparency, accountability and integrity in government,” has uncovered emails sent between Elena Kagan, at the time solicitor general, and then-Senior Counselor for Access to Justice, Larry Tribe, regarding passage of the health care law.
In the emails, Kagan writes,
“I hear they have the votes Larry!! Simply amazing.”
As a result of the clear bias and closeness Kagan has to the outcome of Obamacare becoming the law of the land, demands for her to recuse herself from the bench during this case has, rightly, begun.
However, I and many other leaders in the pro-life movement, see another case to be made regarding the effect these email exchanges should have on the debate about Obamacare.
In response, to Kagan’s celebratory email, Tribe writes,
“So healthcare is basically done! Remarkable. And with the Stupak group accepting the magic of what amounts to a signing statement on steroids!”
As a reminder, then-congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI), united several other self-described “pro-life” Democrats committed to voting against the health care legislation because it lacked necessary language prohibiting federal funding from paying for abortions. However, President Obama issued an Executive Order, claiming it would prohibit such funds from being allocated; Stupak and his coalition succumb to the story they were told, and signed onto the bill. This is the “magic” Tribe refers to.
Since passage of the health care take over, the debate has raged on. Pro-abortion groups and lawmakers still claim the Order closes loopholes that would allow public funds to pay for abortions – despite their insistence from the beginning that no such loophole exists. Pro-life groups and their supporters point to a number of statements by public officials that the Executive Order will not prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion, or as Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO), Co-Chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus put it, the Order, “doesn’t change anything.”
As if the ongoing debate on an issue that seems pretty cut and dry weren’t enough, the Susan B. Anthony List has actually been drawn into a defamation lawsuit by former congressman Steve Driehaus (D-OH) for “loss of livelihood.”
In 2010, we launched an education campaign in his district to inform voters of congressman Driehaus’ vote for taxpayer-funded abortion through Obamacare. Driehaus claimed we lied about his vote, and an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled the case should go to trial. Despite the mounting evidence supporting our claim and a recent vote by the House of Representative to codify into law the prohibition the Executive Order does not provide, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending ourselves against this attack when, it seems, all along we could have just asked Elena Kagan and Larry Tribe to testify on our behalf.
The Executive Order was just “magic” designed to give pro-life Democrats political cover to vote for a bill that allows for federal funding of abortion.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member