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Email: "Breaking: Stupak Says ‘Close’ to Deal with WH on Abortion Executive Order"

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Bishops' Final Plea: Kill Abortion-Laden Senate Health Bill BY LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, DC, March 20, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Only one day after sources confirmed that the leader of the pro-life House Democrats was "finished with Pelosi" and her bid for their votes on the Senate health care bill, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) told MSNBC Sunday morning that he and the White House are "close to getting something done" regarding an abortion funding ban via executive order.The Michigan Democrat said he had been engaged in negotiations late into Saturday night. "We're close but we're not there yet," he said.Stupak acknowledged what several pundits have already deduced regarding Pelosi's quest for the 216 votes needed for passage - that unless some of Stupak's group of pro-life Democrats are won over to the bill, leadership simply doesn't have the votes. The bill is estimated to go up for a final vote in the House at about 6:15 pm EST on Sunday, with a vote on the reconciliation package at about 6 pm.According to the Hill, Stupak had said the day before the vote that there were "at least six" of his original dozen that were holding firm in opposing the health bill, and that he was "going to think about" what form an executive order regarding abortion funding would need to take for him to be satisfied.Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), one of Stupak's group, had told the paper that an executive order "could be helpful, depending on what's in it," but as she hadn't talked to the White House about it, "I don't really know how real that is." According to the Washington Post Sunday morning - which counted the remaining pro-life Democrats at 10 - Kaptur expressed doubt that the order could bring the entire group of pro-life Democrats around. Noting that pro-abortion Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) signed off on the executive order idea, Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review Online called the endorsement "an iron-clad guarantee it's no real alternative for any member who calls himself 'pro-life.'" Despite news of the executive order pitch, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a final communique to the House of Representatives insisted that "the Senate legislation now presented to the House of Representatives on a 'take it or leave it' basis sadly fails this test and ought to be opposed."In a breakdown of the final day's whip count, Politico's Josh Kraushaar pegged the most critical votes as coming from Reps. Baird, Berry, Tanner, Kaptur, Dahlkemper, Driehaus and Kissell.See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:Breakdown: Pelosi's 11th-Hour Pitch for Pro-Life Dem Votes Crumbles http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10032001.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-stupak-says-close-to-deal-with-wh-on-abortion-executive-order/

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