Obama quietly signs executive order affirming federal ban on abortion funding
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
President Obama on Wednesday signed an executive order that was crucial to winning the support of antiabortion Democrats in the weekend’s battle to pass healthcare insurance overhaul.
The Oval Office signing was deliberately low-key with the media excluded, a testament to how abortion rights issues continue to divide nation.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended the decision to limit access to the signing.
“We will have a nice picture and demonstrate that type of transparency,” Gibbs told reporters Wednesday about their exclusion.
The decision came a day after the White House held a low-key session with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a time when the relationship between the countries has been contentious.
There have been disputes over how to deal with abortions throughout the debate over how to overhaul healthcare insurance, leading to different sets of language in the Senate and House bills.
Antiabortion Democrats in the House, led by Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, opposed the Senate language, and it took a promise from Obama to issue an executive order to bring the group on board to vote for the Senate bill, which the president signed into law on Tuesday.
The White House has insisted that the executive order does not represent any change in policy which bars funding abortions except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the woman’s life. The operating language is called the Hyde Amendment.
“The president has always believed that healthcare reform ... did not change the status quo,” Gibbs said on Wednesday. “This reiterates it was not changed.”
Abortion rights advocates and antiabortion groups were united in their disagreement.
“The executive order promised by President Obama was issued for political effect. It changes nothing,” the National Right to Life Committee said in a statement. “It does not correct any of the serious pro-abortion provisions in the bill. The president cannot amend a bill by issuing an order, and the federal courts will enforce what the law says.”
The National Organization for Women, which supports abortion rights, also questioned the executive order.
“This executive order helps to cement the misconception that the Hyde Amendment is settled law rather than what it really is -- an illegitimate tack-on to an annual must-pass appropriations bill. It also sends the outrageous message that it is acceptable to negotiate healthcare reform on the backs of women,” NOW said.
Attending today’s signing was Stupak and a dozen other lawmakers.
Recent polls show that more Americans say they are against abortion than those who say they are for abortion rights. According to Gallup, 51% of Americans in 2009 said they were against abortion, up seven percentage points from the previous year. Those in favor of abortion rights slipped from 50% to 42%.
However, a 2009 New York Times/CBS News poll found that 62% of Americans said the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in the Roe vs. Wade decision was “a good thing.”
-- Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal
