What is past is also sometimes future.

(You know it's bad when I start quoting Minbari aphorisms in my post titles, but here goes.)

There's a pretty awesome op-ed in the Washington Post (shout out to Timothy Noah: I got there via Slate) about why passing health care reform, with or without a ban on Federal subsidies for the remote possibility of an abortion, would probably decrease the number of actual abortions taking place in America. There is no indication that this fact means anything to team Stupak and their resolve to kill any health care bill that doesn't include their specific anti-abortion language. In another example of cosmological overreach, I can't help but wonder what this says about American Christianity. Is it about building the world that Jesus would have wanted (what with the curing of the lepers and all) or, 300 years later, is it still about proving that YOU are one of the saved ("people may be dying of curable diseases left and right, but I'll be damned - literally - if one penny of my tax dollars goes towards a totally legal medical procedure that I find morally questionable;" as my friend Charles pointed out, that's how a lot of us felt about invading Iraq or, for that matter, the death penalty)?

Put another way: are we still just a bunch of Calvinists trying to get back at Europe for kicking us out, because I'm pretty sure that Europe stopped caring.

errata:

From today's nytimes.com:

Mr. Stupak has said he will vote against the Senate bill because he sees the restrictions on abortion as inadequate. But Mr. Kildee said he was satisfied that the provisions in the Senate bill would prevent the use of federal money for coverage of abortions.

“I have always respected and cherished the sanctity of human life,” Mr. Kildee said. “I spent six years studying to be a priest and was willing to devote my life to God.”

“I have listened carefully to both sides, sought counsel from my priest, advice from family, friends and constituents, and I have read the Senate abortion language more than a dozen times,” Mr. Kildee said. “I am convinced that the Senate language maintains the Hyde Amendment, which states that no federal money can be used for abortion.”

Only in this country would "I have always respected and cherished the sanctity of human life" be a reason that you almost voted against a bill that would give medicine to 30 million sick people who can't afford it. That being said, props to Representative Kildee (and, by the way , Dennis Kucinich) for demonstrating that he is a decent human being capable of empathy.