Connie Saltonstall, a Charlevoix County, Michigan, Commissioner announced yesterday that she will challenge Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) in the Democratic primary. Stupak’s restrictive anti-abortion amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 2962) has played a key roll in stalling healthcare reform. According to the Examiner, Saltonstall has voted for Stupak since 1992, but is running against him because his positions on abortion in the healthcare bill “crossed the line.” She told the Detroit Free Press, “I believe that he has a right to his personal, religious views, but to deprive his constituents of needed health care reform because of those views is reprehensible.” The restrictive anti-abortion Stupak/Pitts amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962) passed by a 240-194 vote of the House of Representatives in December 2009. The amendment, co-sponsored by Bart Stupak (D-MI), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), Dan Lipinski (D-IL), and Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA), bans abortion coverage for women in both the public option and private insurance. Under the guise of no federal funding for abortion in so-called keeping with Hyde Amendment restrictions, the Stupak/Pitts Amendment goes way beyond Hyde. This amendment bans abortion coverage even if women pay for it with their own money in the public option or private plans in the insurance exchange.
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