To mark the first anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Atlantic's Chris Good interviewed former Congressman Bart Stupak. (Remember him?) You already know that Stupak's earnest prolife advocacy won him raspberries from those who ought to have been his allies. But there's a lot of interesting detail from the man himself in this interview, including his behind-the-scenes account of how the president's executive order clarifying restrictions on abortion funding was proposed, drafted, and signed. It wasn't Stupak's preferred method of resolving the situation:

[T]o be honest with you, I'd been working with some of the Senate Republicans on trying to find some way to do a technical corrections bill. And actually, truth be known, the Republican leadership in the Senate pulled the rug out on me on that on Thursday night, the Thursday before that Monday [when the final vote occurred]. Most people don't realize that.Anyways, long story short, I always thought we would have some statutory language. It wasn't until Thursday before the vote that when the Republican leadership on the Senate side said no go ... and the reason was that it would pass.Health care would have passed the Senate with Hyde language?Yeah. It would fly though the Senate. So they weren't interested in getting health care passed, they were interested in killing it. So every suggestion, every legislative proposal I had -- and I knew I had to get to 60 votes in the Senate -- I was led to believe up to that point in time they'd work with me. And they pulled the rug out that Thursday before.

No wonder he objected so firmly when the House Republicans tried to add the Stupak wording after the bill had been passed ("This motion is really to politicize life, not prioritize life," he declared from the floor as Republicans booed). In contrast, Stupak tells Good his faith in President Obama's word has been vindicated.

He's upheld that executive order. When he signed it, he said this was an ironclad commitment -- those were his words, 'ironclad commitment,' and I'll give him credit. He's done it. I say that maybe with a little bit of surprise in my voice, I always thought he would, but there was so much outrage from the Bishops and Right to Life that, 'How could we trust this president, cause he's the -- ' I hate to use the word -- but 'the most pro-abortion president ever, and you can't trust him.' Well, I trusted him, and that trust was well founded.

Mollie Wilson O’​Reilly is editor-at-large and columnist at Commonweal.

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