After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all moderation, for the party. His middle-of-the-road views were supposed to appeal to independent-minded Catholics and evangelicals who agreed with Democrats on some issues, but couldn\u2019t pull the lever for him if he was too radical on abortion.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t work out that way. Add Mr. Obama\u2019s recent admission that during his time in the Illinois legislature he voted against a law protecting babies who survive an abortion procedure, and it seems as if the Democrats have accomplished the impossible: They have moved to the left<\/i> on abortion.<\/p>\n
On the party\u2019s platform, the Democrats dropped the words \u201csafe, legal and rare,\u201d the phrase used most famously by both Bill and Hillary Clinton to signal moderation on the issue. The Democrats also added the modifier \u201cunequivocally\u201d to strengthen their support for abortion rights. As if there were any doubt about the message that these changes send to the party\u2019s radical factions, here is feminist Linda Hirshman celebrating in a piece for Slate: \u201cWith the release of the new platform, the emancipation of women may once again become a legitimate political position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some conservative Democrats and a few leaders on the religious left have cited other shifts, such as the inclusion of access to \u201cfamily planning services\u201d and \u201cage-appropriate sex education\u201d in the platform, as evidence that the party is softening its stance. But phrases like \u201csex education\u201d and \u201cfamily planning,\u201d especially when uttered by government officials, rarely warm the hearts of conservative, religious Americans.<\/p>\n
If Democrats had wanted to \u201cmake room\u201d for pro-lifers, they could have. One proposal for the platform was a statement of \u201cconscience\u201d \u2014 that is, language noting that people of good conscience can disagree on abortion. This was rejected by the platform writers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
More<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all moderation, for the party. His middle-of-the-road views were supposed to appeal to independent-minded Catholics and evangelicals who agreed with Democrats on some issues, but couldn\u2019t pull the lever for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2986,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,248,148,310,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-blackadder","category-election","category-obama","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
Democrats Move Left on Abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democrats Move Left on Abortion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vox Nova\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-20T17:32:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edward Blackadder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Edward Blackadder\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/\",\"name\":\"Democrats Move Left on Abortion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-20T17:32:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-08-20T17:32:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/86371a188706f41ef474c6b7b7639bf1\"},\"description\":\"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Democrats Move Left on Abortion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/\",\"name\":\"Vox Nova\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/86371a188706f41ef474c6b7b7639bf1\",\"name\":\"Edward Blackadder\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99a7ba9aa0b298779ec50744cc8af78d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99a7ba9aa0b298779ec50744cc8af78d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Edward Blackadder\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/author\/blackadder\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Democrats Move Left on Abortion","description":"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Democrats Move Left on Abortion","og_description":"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/","og_site_name":"Vox Nova","article_published_time":"2008-08-20T17:32:06+00:00","author":"Edward Blackadder","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Edward Blackadder","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/","name":"Democrats Move Left on Abortion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-08-20T17:32:06+00:00","dateModified":"2008-08-20T17:32:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/86371a188706f41ef474c6b7b7639bf1"},"description":"After a week in which the Democrats have been renegotiating their abortion platform, Mr. Obama was supposed to provide a voice of clarity, and above all","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/08\/20\/democrats-move-left-on-abortion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Democrats Move Left on Abortion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/","name":"Vox Nova","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/86371a188706f41ef474c6b7b7639bf1","name":"Edward Blackadder","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99a7ba9aa0b298779ec50744cc8af78d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99a7ba9aa0b298779ec50744cc8af78d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Edward Blackadder"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/author\/blackadder\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}