I am in this case working with a presupposition, that one of the government’s primary purposes is to protect the conscience of its people.  In other words, they are to protect the American people from being forced (enslaved) to take actions that go directly against their moral convictions.  I believe this can be achieved by giving more power to the states when it comes to social issues (abortion, death penalty, gay marriage, the social aspects of illegal immigration…).  Therefore, the federal government should not be in charge of regulating whether or not health organizations should be allowed to use any public funds to pay for abortions except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger, or when a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape.  

President Obama has cleverly figured out a way to give Congressman Stupak and other anti-abortion democrats what they want—without actually giving them anything—in exchange for their cooperation in voting for Obamacare.  In the EO released a while back, Obama reinforced the Hyde amendment, by assuring anti-abortion democrats that the stipulations of said amendment would continue to “…prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer abortions.”  A bit of a peculiar move for a man that was adamant about his pro-choice position one year ago.  I’ve since learned the reasons for such a “non-partisan” move.

(1) The Hyde amendment must be voted on every year.  With congress as left heavy as it is these days, it might be alarmingly easy for the democrats to throw the hyde amendment out completely when they vote on it in October.    

(2) The authority of executive orders does not extend over laws passed by congress, which means that Obama can make the politically safe move while his buddies in congress make the tougher move.

(3) Congressman Stupak, the leader of the anti-abortion democrats, was about as loyal to his moral convictions as Fredo Corleone was loyal to his brother Michael.  You can look to the 750,000 dollars just pocketed back when the EO was released for improvements to an airport in his district.