Abortion has long divided the country, but it did not always divide the two major parties. When the issue was first nationalized in the 1970s, Democrats and Republicans differed among themselves more than with each other. In the first presidential election after Roe v. Wade, there were only relatively minor abortion-related differences between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. They ended up splitting voters on both sides.
In fact, large parts of the traditional Republican base were pro-choice and an even larger group of Democratic voters was pro-life. That's why no less a liberal than George McGovern opposed adding a strong pro-choice plank to the Democratic platform in 1972; both men he picked as running mates were pro-life. Though pro-choice, Carter objected to the Democratic platform's 1980 endorsement of taxpayer funding of abortion. Back then, there were upwards of 100 pro-life Democrats in Congress.
Today, are there any left? That's the question many pro-lifers find themselves asking after Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-MI) deal with the White House over abortion funding in the health care bill. After months of haggling, Stupak settled for an executive order that virtually no knowledgeable pro-lifer believes will be an effective ban on taxpayer funding of abortion.
President Obama's executive order essentially reiterates the abortion language Stupak and his allies had long found unacceptable while promising effective enforcement of the "segregation of funds" model most pro-lifers find unreliable. The order cannot amend or override the statute itself and can be rescinded by any president -- including this one -- at any time, if the courts do not overturn or ignore it first.
The only surefire ban on publicly funded abortion is an explicit statutory prohibition like the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which is why pro-choice hardliners rejected that amendment but accepted the executive order. But Obama's signature on a piece of paper was nevertheless sufficient to get most of Stupak's wavering contingent of Democrats to vote to allow the federal government to subsidize and administer health plans offering elective abortion coverage.
