Stupak Called "Baby Killer" for Backing Bill

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Health Care

(Credit: CBS)

Updated 12:48 a.m. Eastern Time

An unknown person on the Republican side yelled out "baby killer" while Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) was speaking on the House floor Sunday evening.

Stupak announced Sunday afternoon that he would back the Senate bill despite his strong opposition to abortion rights. He had previously indicated that he would not vote for the bill because he believed it did not guarantee that there would be no taxpayer funding for abortions.

His change of heart came as President Obama agreed to release an executive order backing up the existing ban on taxpayer funding for abortion. The White House released the executive order minutes before Stupak announced his decision.

Stupak was the leader of a coalition of roughly six like-minded Democrats who decided to support the bill, which passed by just three votes.

It is not yet known whether it was a member of the House or someone in the gallery who shouted out the comment. Politico, which provided the video at left, reports that "reporters in the House chamber said the 'baby killer' shout seemed to come from a group of lawmakers that included Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), but he said it wasn't him."

Some people know who it is but won't say," the lawmaker said.

Stupak was speaking after the Senate bill passed and Republicans moved to quash the bill, citing in part the abortion issue.

More Coverage of Health Care Reform:

House Passes Health Care Bill
Obama: "This is What Change Looks Like"
Health Care Vote: How Each Representative Voted
Announcement of the Vote
Boehner Tells Democrats: Shame on You
Pelosi Urges House to "Make History"
Health Care Bill: What's In It?
Short-Term Effect of the Bill
What, Me Worry? Obama Watches Basketball
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by hillarynow March 22, 2010 4:59 PM EDT

Sign the petition for stricter House and Senate chamber regulations --

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stricterregulation

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by hugejass March 22, 2010 10:14 PM EDT: I say, let them have at it! If they were allowed to have a REAL debate like they do in British, Australian or Canadian Parliament, they would be shouting at the tops of their lungs & calling each other names in the process...

Maybe we wouldn't have ended up w/ this monstrosity, and more of our freedoms taken away by the likes of the vile Nazi Pelosi. Does this bill EXPAND personal freedoms? If not, it means Congress is taking your freedom's away folks!


by barbaram99 March 22, 2010 1:07 PM EDT: Not every child was loved growing up years agp..We were dumpped in foster care ..I am 55 and born too early and the made handicapped my birth..I was not alone..I was abused and used for them getting money and poorly schooled..I grew up and never wanted children as I could not care for myself and so it would bave been unfair to bring children into the world others would raised as I could not..Yet..I demanded to be fixed so no babies..Yet the young will breed and have them to point of other raising them if they can't for some reason.; Reply to this comment


by patriotmn March 22, 2010 12:46 PM EDT: Continued

Another former "Dixiecrat" is former Democrat Sen. Ernest Hollings, who put up the Confederate flag over the state Capitol when he was the governor of South Carolina. There was no public outcry when Democrat Sen. Christopher Dodd praised Byrd as someone who would have been "a great senator for any moment," including the Civil War. Yet Democrats denounced then-Senate GOP leader Trent Lott for his remarks about Sen. Strom Thurmond (R.-S.C.). Thurmond was never in the Ku Klux Klan and defended blacks against lynching and the discriminatory poll taxes imposed on blacks by Democrats. If Byrd and Thurmond were alive during the Civil War, and Byrd had his way, Thurmond would have been lynched.; Reply to this comment

by patriotmn March 22, 2010 12:45 PM EDT

A little History for everyone-

History shows that the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party. This ugly fact about the Democrat Party is detailed in the book, A Short History of Reconstruction, (Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1990) by Dr. Eric Foner, the renown liberal historian who is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. As a further testament to his impeccable credentials, Professor Foner is only the second person to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians.

Democrats in the last century did not hide their connections to the Ku Klux Klan. Georgia-born Democrat Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan wrote on page 21 of the September 1928 edition of the Klan's The Kourier Magazine: "I have never voted for any man who was not a regular Democrat. My father ? never voted for any man who was not a Democrat. My grandfather was ?the head of the Ku Klux Klan in reconstruction days?. My great-grandfather was a life-long Democrat?. My great-great-grandfather was?one of the founders of the Democratic party."

Dr. Foner in his book explores the history of the origins of Ku Klux Klan and provides a chilling account of the atrocities committed by Democrats against Republicans, black and white.

On page 146 of his book, Professor Foner wrote: "Founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Ku Klux Klan spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a 'reign of terror' against Republican leaders black and white." Page 184 of his book contains the definitive statements: "In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy. It aimed to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life."

Heartbreaking are Professor Foner's recitations of the horrific acts of terror inflicted by Democrats on black and white Republicans. Recounted on pages 184-185 of his book is one such act of terror: "Jack Dupree, a victim of a particularly brutal murder in Monroe County, Mississippi - assailants cut his throat and disemboweled him, all within sight of his wife, who had just given birth to twins - was 'president of a republican club' and known as a man who 'would speak his mind.'"

"White gangs roamed New Orleans, intimidating blacks and breaking up Republican meetings," wrote Dr. Foner on page 146 of his book. On page 186, he wrote: "An even more extensive 'reign of terror' engulfed Jackson, a plantation county in Florida's panhandle. 'That is where Santa has his seat,' remarked a black clergyman; all told over 150 persons were killed, among them black leaders and Jewish merchant Samuel Fleischman, resented for his Republican views and for dealing fairly with black customers."
The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s. During the civil rights era of the 1960s, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Sen. Al Gore Sr. And after he became President, Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph, who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King.

In March of 1968, while referring to Dr. King's leaving Memphis, Tenn., after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd (W.Va.), a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, called Dr. King a "trouble-maker" who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Contrary to the false assertions by Democrats, the racist "Dixiecrats" did not all migrate to the Republican Party. "Dixiecrats" declared that they would rather vote for a "yellow dog" than vote for a Republican because the Republican Party was know as the party for blacks. Today, some of those "Dixiecrats" continue their political careers as Democrats, including Robert Byrd, who is well known for having been a "Keagle" in the Ku Klux Klan.

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by johnpaul1980 March 23, 2010 5:45 PM EDT: Listen anyone with a little history knowledge knows that between some time span notably between the end of WWII until the Civil Rights area, the parties began to shift ideologies. The Democrat became known to represent the minorities around the end of the Kennedy Presidency and thus the bigots, Nazi's, and slave-owning generations became known as the Republican Party. Nice history lesson yes, I learned this in my sophomore year in college.


by rocketjl March 22, 2010 12:02 PM EDT: Obama, Stupak, and everyone else knows that an Executive Order can not over ride a federal law, so it was all smoke and mirrors to cover a back room deal Obama has given Stupak. Understand that Friday, information seeped out that tax money for 3 airports has gone to Stupak's district. There may be more, because when the President signs the bill into law, it negates the Executive Order. I guess it will seep out in time. All the anti-abortion folks really got suckered by this guy.; Reply to this comment


by NowBeWithThat March 22, 2010 11:29 AM EDT: Abortion is not a health care issue.; Reply to this comment


by barbaram99 March 22, 2010 11:29 AM EDT: grumpas,well said..As a life long sp needs person from birth..I can tell yer I never asked to be blind,have C/P etc..Yet I was born to a child mother who was a teen who was forced to drop out of her last year of high school and marry as she was carrying me. I came too early and have sp needs due to it..She never formed that bone with me and so so I was moved from home to home..I came from a broken home..I can come and go yet my disabled body is my life long prison..I was poorly schooled..Years ago before Wade vs Roe. The young ladies went the was of back allies and metal coat hangers..I heard horror stories when I was a girl..Yet to force a woman to carry a child to could harm/kill her is wrong..The bloody bible oh yes that book everyone lives their lives based on is so dark ages..They won't practise birth control..Abortion is not birth control..It medically needed..My birth mother hated me and told me to my face..I have never seen her face. I know her voice..I was a foster child and hated there as I was used for money.Growin up I was abused..I told that woman that dumpped me there will be no by me..I had to demand to be fixed so no babies..Would a bible believer let a sick woman who is also carrying child die..They would so that motherless child is born..That is so self cendred and cold..I am 55 and children..The states limit the numbers of children a woman on Medicade can have..I heard 2. This 2010..There is no need for large families..I forgot they need children to grow up able to fight the wars that will be on going.. 1984 book..My late father was a vet and I loved him as he was the parent I boned with. The bible believers wants babies and yet they won't step up to the plate and see that baby born to a poor woman who can care for he/her etc, That is the slavery of the prolife..They will see a woman suffer just so a baby is born..I realise children are needed..They are used..Surely yer all member that self cendred woman bearing 8 babies all at once. She had other children as well. We need to stop at 2. The person at yelled baby killer is out of line..That same person would want a healthy abled bodied child. That same person won't not want sp needs child..I pity them that see but are more blind than me. I pity them that have a brain but fail to think things thru. To know this is 2010 not the dark ages..Babies are costly to raise..; Reply to this comment

by jab232 March 22, 2010 11:24 AM EDT

I recommend that all Senators, representatives and tea party members take the same pledge we take when we join the coffee party. Here's what it says--

I pledge to conduct myself in a way that is civil, honest, and respectful toward people with whom I disagree. I value people from different cultures, I value people with different ideas, and I value and cherish the democratic process.

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by farmertommy March 22, 2010 11:25 AM EDT: PRIMARY STUPAK


by wfw3536 March 22, 2010 11:23 AM EDT: This person is joke and never believed in stopping abortions, but was just trying get money for 3 airports in his district. Instead of lying and pretending he was against abortions, he used the system just like many of the democrats who got their own crooked deals for their votes for this bill. I am looking forward to November so we can vote out of office these crooks.; Reply to this comment


by Stevie98119 March 22, 2010 10:59 AM EDT: Cowardice - pure and simple cowardice. Whoever this idiot is - he doesn't even have the courage to stand up and say - I did it. Makes me want to run right out and vote for that guy - how about you?; Reply to this comment