Steve Stivers and the Lie About Mary Jo Kilroy to be Kept Quiet
“What’s more, Kilroy voted to allow your tax dollars to fund abortions.” — Steve Stivers, e-mail statement distributed November 9, 2009.
Steve Stivers, challenging Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy in Ohio’s 15th District next year, made this declaration yesterday in regards to H.R. 3962 and the Stupak Amendment to it. The Stupak Amendment, which passed despite Mary Jo Kilroy’s vote against it, made it illegal for any private health care plan to cover abortion if just one person enrolled in the plan obtains a federal subsidy to help pay for the premiums. Under the Stupak Amendment, even if a woman pays all the costs of such a plan completely on her own out of her own pocket, the plan cannot provide insurance coverage for abortions.
Steve Stivers’ declaration is a lie because Mary Jo Kilroy did not vote against taking away tax dollars for abortion funding. She voted against something more draconian than that: an anti-free-market measure that forbids private insurance plans from covering abortion even when women pay for that private insurance themselves. If Steve Stivers is for such a measure, he will have difficulty depicting himself as a man in favor of freeing business from the fetters of government.
But Steve Stivers’ declaration is a lie for a more fundamental reason than that. Even in voting against the Stupak Amendment, Mary Jo Kilroy did not vote “to allow your tax dollars to fund abortions.” Under the unamended text of H.R. 3962, federal tax dollars are clearly prohibited from being used for abortion, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and danger to the life of the woman (the same exceptions as in the Stupak amendment). H.R. 3962, even unamended, would have set in stone these provisions of the Hyde Amendment, a measure that until now the Congress has had to reauthorize every year, with some controversy.
Steve Stivers is lying about Mary Jo Kilroy because in her support for H.R. 3962 before the vote, in her vote against the Stupak Amendment, and then in her vote for H.R. 3962 after the Stupak Amendment passed, Mary Jo Kilroy acted in support of the Hyde Amendment. Mary Jo Kilroy voted in favor of prohibiting federal tax dollars from being used to fund abortions.
You won’t hear the Kilroy campaign trumpeting about Stivers’ lie, however, just as you won’t hear congressional Democrats who call themselves pro-choice speaking loudly about the support they gave to H.R. 3962′s provision to cement the ban on federal funding for abortions. After all these years harrumphing about the Hyde Amendment, congressional Democrats went ahead and gave it their support. This is an issue about which Democrats would rather their pro-choice constituents didn’t hear. This is a lie by Steve Stivers that Mary Jo Kilroy might prefer were kept quiet.
Thanks to Mary Jo Kilroy for standing for those that she represents and not just for her own opinions and party. Silly me, I thought that is what senators and representatives were supposed to do. oh AND not listening or taking “bribes” from lobbyists. Let’s see the word “representative” that sort of indicates representing…such as representing those they represent. What a GREAT concept. So, when you go to Washington, it is not all about YOU, but the entire state that you go there to represent. The people of the United States want and need a public health option end of story.
The Ohio Right to Life put politics over principles. Their only saving grace is giving Stivers a preferred status. Stivers did not receive the Ohio Right to Life endorsement. A preferred status is not the same as an endorsement. I am pro-life from conception until natural death. Steve Stivers is pro-choice.
Rob Portman received 50% more votes than Stivers in the 15th congressional district. It is obvious republicans are not happy with Stivers. John Adams took over 8000 votes and Ralph Applegate took almost 2000 votes in the primary.
A vote for Stivers is a vote for Kilroy; Don’t waste a constitutional conservative vote on Stivers.
Cast your Constitutional Conservative vote for a constitutional conservative. Vote for David Ryon.