C-Streets Trojan Representative, Bart Stupak, has really put Pelosi, the Obama Administration and Health Care Reform in a bind. It does change the status quo for reproductive rights and will erode the progressive base in a variety of swing districts for 2010 elections. I hope Barbara Boxer is correct in saying the Senate has the votes to kill the Stupak Amendment. TPM pulls back to curtain on the big brother of the Stupak Amendment the Pitts Amendment.

A day before the bill passed out of committee, Stupak co-sponsored, and voted for an amendment written by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)–distinct from the now notorious “Stupak amendment”–that would have limited the government’s ability to include abortions in benefits plans to cases of incest, life of the mother, and forcible rape.

The Pitts amendment actually passed, 31-27, with the support of several Democrats and all Republicans. But the “forcible” language–legally significant–was a bridge too far.

In a parliamentary maneuver, chairman Henry Waxman actually voted “aye”, according to a House aide, in order to retain the prerogative of bringing it up for a second, unsuccessful vote. Between votes, Waxman conferred with some of the bill’s Democratic supporters to convince them to help shoot it down.

via Think The Stupak Amendment Is Bad Now? It Could Have Been Worse | TPMDC.

Stupak is laying out a strategy for saddling needed legislation with oppressive amendments, he is not “man enough” to introduce in a separate bill. Rachel Maddow explains in detail.