By Jim Scarantino
In my May 22 column, “Pro-Life Democrats Turning Red to Blue,” I wrote of the increasing numbers of pro-life Democrats in Congress and governor’s mansions. Only because of pro-life Democrats does that party hold majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Indeed, Harry Reid, the Senate’s majority leader, is a pro-life Mormon. Democrats’ hopes for increasing their margins in both houses of Congress in 2008 also depend upon the success of pro-life Democrats running for seats traditionally held by Republicans.
But based upon its convention staging, in the words of the late Gov. Bob Casey of
True, Casey’s son, Bob Jr., a pro-life senator, was permitted to speak. It was an effort redress the insult to the Casey family and pro-life Catholics when the most popular governor of
But Casey Jr. steered clear of saying anything substantive about abortion. You have to wonder if he was cautioned in advance. In his seven-minute speech, all he had to say on the subject was to acknowledge that he and Sen. Barack Obama disagree about abortion. Not a word was offered by Casey Jr. about the immorality of terminating innocent human life or the ultimate goal of pro-life Democrats, the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The night before Casey spoke, Nancy Keenan, NARAL’s president, had the podium. She spoke as though Catholic and evangelical Democrats and the pro-life Democrats giving the party control of Congress did not exist. Said Keenan: “As a former elected official from
Pro-life Democrats do exist
The party platform officially pretends there is no such a thing as a pro-life Democrat. The opening line of the platform on abortion reads: “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”
This is the strongest pro-abortion language ever to appear in the platform. Note that it even calls for public financing of abortions.
Though the Democratic Party is still formally controlled by pro-abortion forces, its pro-life leaders are pushing from below and speaking through microphones not controlled by NARAL and its allies. In the packed and wide-open forum on faith that helped open the convention, pro-life Democrats demanded that Obama commit to supporting the Pregnant Woman Support Act, an aggressive effort to dramatically reduce the 1.3 million abortions committed every year in this country. The unscripted condemnation of abortion was not soft-pedaled. The Christian Newswire headline read, “Democratic Convention Begins With Thunderous Denunciation of Abortion.”
Mid-week during the convention, Democrats for Life released “The Case For Pro-Life Democrats.” Relying on years of polling data, the document argues that the party is out of touch with Americans and its own voters.
For instance, 75 percent of DNC delegates agreed with the statement that “Abortion should be generally available to those who want it rather than under stricter limits or not permitted.” That statistic is contrasted with Zogby and Gallup 2007 polling that found that 69 percent of Americans favor parental consent for minors seeking abortion, 64 percent favor informed consent for women seeking abortion, 72 percent oppose third-trimester abortions and 67 percent favor a ban on partial-birth abortions.
The study also shows Democratic voters becoming more pro-life. A slight majority of Democratic voters now believe it is morally wrong to have an abortion.
Of key importance for
Younger voters are increasingly anti-abortion. According to a 2003
In this election…
How these trends will play out in this election depends on how well the GOP overcomes other problems. While pro-life sentiment is growing in the country, the GOP has also been alienating many of those same voters through its harsh rhetoric and hypocrisy on other pro-life and social-justice issues like war, the environment, health care, immigration and fighting poverty.
A consistent approach to the sanctity of all human life has not been a GOP centerpiece. The right-to-life movement has also frequently let itself become an extension of the GOP, resulting in many lost opportunities with Democratic and independent voters.
The divisions within the Democratic Party on abortion are widening and cannot be ignored. The abortion issue need only affect a few percentage points of the vote in key states, particularly those with large Catholic populations, to be one of the deciding factors in this election. Come November, Democrats will have an opportunity to assess whether having the president of NARAL claim the Democratic Party as “my party” is in their long-term self-interest.
Scarantino has been recognized as one of the country’s best political columnists by the American Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. His work has been published in more than 50 newspapers. You can contact him at jrscarantino@yahoo.com.