It hasn't been the best couple of political weeks for religious conservatives, and the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" for them doesn't seem to be emerging any time soon.
They watched with sadness as President Obama revoked the Mexico City Policy, which provided taxpayer dollars to fund overseas family planning and abortion. While the family planning provisions were removed from the House version of the economic stimulus package, the clause preventing federal funding for religious buildings used for "sectarian purposes" remains in the Senate bill.
As if this weren't enough, the president is expected to restore federal funding to embryonic stem cell research.
At last night's House leadership retreat, the president told one congressman, "I guarantee you that we will sign an executive order for stem cells," but wants to work through the bill with the House and Senate. He said that "God gave us power to make smart decisions, to cure diseases, to alleviate suffering," and considers embryonic stem cell research as a way to achieve those goals.
According to a 2008 survey by the Pew Forum, Americans remain divided on stem cell research, with 51% maintaining that it's more important to conduct research, whereas 35% believe that it's more important not to destroy embryos. Proponents of this research see it as a promising cure to many diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, but opponents think that the destruction of a viable embryo is too high a price for this research. They instead would promote greater research of adult stem cells or cord blood, which they believe could be even more promising.
This potential executive order isn't really unexpected, and probably would have been issued sooner without the heavy weight of the economic stimulus package. If past votes are any indication, the president should have broad support for restoring funding to embryonic stem cell research from both the Senate and the House, but this order definitely won't do much to endear him or Congress to religious conservatives.