At the end of the health care debate, when Obama was desperate to get the final bill passed in the House, he agreed to make a deal with Bart Stupak (D-MI) on the issue of abortion, by offering an executive order that restricted the availability of insurance coverage for reproductive health. The right to abortion for many in need was traded away as a bargaining chip to get that final bill passed.

Last week, as part of the negotiations to get a budget for the rest of fiscal year 2011, President Obama again decided to use abortion rights as a bargaining chip to secure a final deal

Just a reminder of what “small government” looks like under our Republican overlords in Texas.

So! H.R.3 supposedly won’t redefine rape anymore, but the fight’s just getting started. We learned last week that the new Congress followed H.R. 3 with H.R. 358, the Protect Life Act, which would redefine “conscience” clauses to allow pregnant women to die if saving them would require harming the fetus.

Get big gubmint out of my wallet and back into my sister’s uterus where it belongs!

Think the it’s-not-rape-unless-there’s-screaming “No Taxpayer Money For Abortion Act” is bad? Check out the GOP’s Orwellian “Protect Life Act.”

So, anyone missing Rick Santorum yet? The guy who once named a stillborn fetus “Gabriel” and took it home to meet his kids still has trouble with that oh-so-tricky distinction between “person” and “not-a-person.”

In the long and storied history of phony pretzel-logic right-wing arguments, this is surely one of the all-time greats.

During last night’s debate with Barbara Boxer, iCarly ran the same playbook the GOP always runs on choice.

Those of us who oppose the right-wing encroachment on a woman’s right to choose are told quadrennially that we simply must vote for the Democratic choice for President. This is the only way to ensure that the Supreme Court doesn’t continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights. So why is Barack Obama choosing someone like Elena Kagan?

UPDATE: CNN says Stupak’s not quite a Yes yet. I’ll throw the numbers at the bottom including what we know about Brian Baird. Here’s the press release on that. Reuters is now confirming that Bart Stupak will vote for the health care bill. That’s the end of the line here. Stupak will bring along a [...]