8th (and last) Update: Mary Katherine Ham at The Weekly Standard reports on his press conference:
Bart Stupak, pro-life Democrat who was the leader of a bloc of hold-outs, just held a press conference announcing a deal he made with the White House to address his abortion concerns in an Executive Order. He announced that "8 or 9" pro-life Democrats will vote for health-care reform now, which should put the bill past its hurdle of 216 votes.
7th Update: Text of Obama’s planned executive order on abortion.
6th Update: From Stacy McCain via Twitter – Stupak press conference at 3:00p (CST)/4:00p (EST). Major Garrett of Fox News tweets – “Stupak presser at 4 p.m. By my notes, all #HCR pressers so far have been to announce support, not opposition.” John Hawkins tweets 8-9 prolife Democrats to join him.
5th Update: Statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday – fix flaws or vote no (HT: Florida Pundit)
4th Update: Jillian Bandes notes at TownHall, if true, he would join six other prolife Democrats in voting yes on this legislation.
3rd Update: From the Washington Examiner:
…I just talked to Stupak in the basement of the Capitol as he walked passed a throng of protesters calling for members to vote against the bill.
"I’m still a no vote. There is no final agreement." Stupak said….
…"We are waiting until we have an agreement with not just the White House but also the Speaker and others," Stupak said. "There is no agreement. It’s still a work in progress. I think we have work to do. "
Also related – Americans United for Life said that an executive order won’t stop abortion in health care.
AUL president Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews.com, "the proposal to address the problem of abortion funding in the health care bill through use of an executive order is a tacit acknowledgement that the bill as it stands is pro-abortion legislation."
"Both the President and the Speaker have repeatedly denied this stark fact," she said.
"Furthermore, the AUL legal team has concluded that an executive order is not an adequate fix to mitigate the Senate bill’s establishment of taxpayer-funded abortion. For example, an executive order cannot prevent insurance companies that pay for abortions in the exchanges from receiving federal subsidies," Yoest adds.
"In addition, executive orders can be undone or modified as quickly as they are created. President Obama revoked the Mexico City Policy, through the use of an executive order, and thereby allowed federal tax dollars to finance organizations that provide abortions internationally for the first time in years," she continued.
Read the rest at LifeNews.com.
2nd Update: Call his office at (202) 225-4735 or email him here.
Update: Steve Brusk of CNN tweeted:
Urgent — Rep. Stupak to CNN producer Lesa Jansen: "I’m still a no…There is no deal yet. Its a work in progress.
Original Post: That is what “sources” say at C-SPAN and MSNBC. HotAir’s Ed Morrissey writes:
And thus does the Republican final hope for blocking ObamaCare finally collapse, if this turns out to be true. One can’t call this a defection by Bart Stupak, since he’s a Democrat now apparently committing to support for a key Democratic agenda item. It’s certainly a betrayal of his oft-proclaimed pro-life principles, however. So far, the news has been reported by MS-NBC on its broadcast and website (as a banner headline) as “sources say,” and reported similarly by C-SPAN, but as of this moment, no written report has surfaced with any details.
This could be a false report, but it’s been no secret for the last few days that Stupak has worked hard to find a way to vote for this bill. We’ll see if the promise of an executive order from Barack Obama did the trick.
Jill Stanek posted earlier that he was hopeful about the executive order. I just don’t see how it would be binding or that President Obama would do this. He could easily rescind the order after the health care reform bill is past. Stupak shouldn’t be hopeful.
Updated before I even finished writing this post – it appears so, Reuters reports:
U.S. Democratic Representative Bart Stupak, who opposes abortion, will vote for healthcare legislation later on Sunday, in a move that could help pave the way for passage of the bill, MSNBC reported.
Stupak and a small number of other anti-abortion Democrats had threatened to vote against the legislation out of concerns that it would allow federal funding of abortions.
Democrats need 216 votes needed to pass the bill over unified Republican opposition in the House.
HT: The Other McCain
He evidently got what he was looking for.