The Travails Of Pro-life Democrats

Who do you think said this?

“Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old. When history looks back at this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”

Find out after the jump.

Also find out about pro-life Democrats trying to have an impact in their party and how they are being treated.

Ted Kennedy! Another eloquent pro-lifer, until after the Roe v. Wade decision and he saw which way the wind was blowing in his party.

Today pro-life Democrats are battling for inclusion in their party’s “big tent.” They are arguing that as long as the party is so extreme on the issue, insisting on abortion on demand at any time in the pregnancy, they will continue to lose state elections.

Don Clemmer tells the tale, including a fascinating account of the history of the issue within the Democratic party.

From Don Clemmer, Pro-life Democrats’ modest proposal, Our Sunday Visitor:

As the 447 members of the Democratic National Committee gather in Atlanta Feb. 23-26 to elect their new chairman, the party has engaged in much public and internal discussion about its future in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid. But amid the head-scratching and debates over identity politics and reconnecting with blue-collar Midwestern voters, one issue of deep concern for Catholics has been notably absent amid the soul searching.

“The party still has not opened their eyes to the reality of the number of pro-life Democrats who really feel like they’ve been excluded and pushed out of the party,” Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, told Our Sunday Visitor.

only 20 percent of Democrats now believe abortion should be illegal in most cases. In July 2016, the group Democrats for Life released a report entitled “Open the Big Tent!”, which raised alarm about how the party’s increase in support for abortion in recent years has coincided with its being wiped out electorally, especially at the state level, with the party reaching its lowest levels of influence since the 1920s. Only 16 states have Democratic governors, and only five states have Democratic governors and Democratic-controlled legislatures, compared to 25 states with total Republican control.

These depleted numbers have gotten more attention from Democrats since last fall’s election, but abortion remains either a blind spot or taboo.

“I hear almost no one talking about that inside the party,” Rep. Dan Lipinski, a pro-life Democrat and a Catholic, who has represented Illinois’s 3rd congressional district since 2005, told OSV.

Day agreed: “I don’t see any effort to try to temper this really strong pro-abortion message that NARAL and Planned Parenthood have put together that’s really killing the party.”

[Keep reading. . .]

Read this book on the subject by Kristen Day, national director of Democrats for Life.