President Barack Obama has signed an executive order providing additional safeguards to ensure that long-standing restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion are enforced under the new health reform legislation.
The executive order was the linchpin that brought a number of anti-abortion House members onboard the sweeping healthcare package that was approved by the chamber this past weekend.
Obama on Tuesday signed the main piece of the healthcare legislation into law. A companion bill that contains fixes to the larger bill has yet to be approved by the Senate.
“This is an excellent executive order and a strong complement to the healthcare reform legislation that was signed into law,” said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) in a written statement, who attended the signing of the executive order at the White House with more than a dozen other lawmakers.
“I and other pro-life Democrats are pleased that we were able to uphold this important principle and vote for a healthcare bill that is pro-life at every stage of life,” he said.
Stupak and other anti-abortion Democrats had held off from voting in favor of the legislation, claiming its language wasn't strong enough to enforce the public funding ban on abortion. Getting them to vote “yea” essentially sealed the 216 votes needed for the majority to pass the reform bills.
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