Can Kerry reclaim pro-life Democrats?

Decatur Daily Democrat ^ | NAT HENTOFF

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

U.S. Reps. James Oberstar (Minnesota) and Bart Stupak (Michigan) - members of the Democrats for Life of America's National Advisory Board - met with Democratic National Committee head Terry McAuliffe, on March 4, to point out that the Democrats' majority in Congress diminished at almost the same rate pro-life voters left the party.

These are the illuminating statistics - ignored by the media - that were presented to McAuliffe: In the 95th Congress (1977-78), Democrats had a 292-seat majority in the House, which included 125 pro-life Democrats. Now, as a minority, Democrats are down to 204 seats, with 28 pro-life Democrats.

At the meeting, McAuliffe was told that in certain Congressional districts, a pro-life Democrat would be able to win a Republican-leaning seat. John Kerry and the Democratic National Committee, said McAuliffe's visitors, should be well-advised to look hard at those districts. McAuliffe told them to talk to Kerry and the DNC Executive Board.

The pro-life Democratic members of Congress who came to see McAuliffe asked him to have the DNC Web site provide a link to Democrats for Life of America, and to expand the current platform language of the party to accept pro-life Democrats. Also, they would like at least one pro-life speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention to show there is room in the party for debate on the issue.

Former Democrats who felt the party has abandoned pro-lifers entirely have been in contact with Democrats for Life of America once they found out it exists. Their reasons for defection included:

€ "It seemed like the Democratic Party became less pro-choice and more pro-abortion during the 1980s. For some reason, freedom of speech and thought stopped when it came to abortion."

€ "The only place where it was OK to talk about both sides of the abortion issue was the Republican Party. Since 1984, I have voted for the Republicans, primarily because of the abortion issue. It hasn't been easy. I didn't really like Bush I or Bush II, but when the Democrats shut off any pro-life speeches at the ... 1992 convention, I couldn't vote for Clinton."

It was at the 1992 Democratic Convention that then-Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey, whom I had the privilege of knowing, was prevented from speaking. This, even though, of all of the governors in the nation, he had done more than any other for the poor (including providing health insurance for children whose families couldn't afford it, but were not eligible for public assistance).

For women, Casey required HMOs to pay for annual mammograms for women over age 40, and he set up multi-dimensional health care programs for women and children. But the late governor was pro-life, and so Clinton's convention handlers blocked him from speaking. Casey asked me at the time: "What has become of the Democratic Party I once knew? It's become a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Abortion Rights Action League."

But Casey did not leave the Democratic Party; he was too committed to its traditions. Many pro-life Democrats, however, have switched or stayed at home rather than vote. Those looking for another reason why party members defected need only look at the House Democrats' vigorous and unsuccessful opposition to the pending Unborn Victims of Violence bill. If adopted, it would penalize attacks on a pregnant woman as separate federal crimes against the fetus and the mother. Doctors performing legal abortions would be exempted.

House Democrats opposed the bill, despite a Newsweek poll, cited in a Feb. 26 Washington Times editorial, that found that "more than 80 percent of Americans think that the killer of a pregnant woman and her unborn child should face two charges of murder."

As Illinois Republican Henry Hyde said during the debate on the House floor about his opponents' pro-abortion slogan, the right to choose, "there is only one choice, a dead baby or a live baby." As of this writing, the Senate vote will be very close.

In the interest of full disclosure, although I have voted as an independent for many years, I am registered as a Democrat in New York City because usually that's the only way for my voice to be heard in most elections there. Accordingly, I agreed to be listed as a member of the National Advisory Board of Democrats for Life of America because I have often - in this column and other writings, including my books - publicly declared myself to be a non-religious civil libertarian pro-lifer.

And I agree with the question of a former Democrat who told the Democrats for Life of America: "Why has the Republican Party been allowed to hijack the Democratic Party on the issue?"

Democrats for Life of America is located at 1667 K Street, N.W., Suite 520, Washington, D.C. 20006 (www.democratsforlife.org).

Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of several books, including his current work,, "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance" (Seven Stories Press, 2003).

Copyright 2004, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Interesting read, but John Kerry certainly will not bring many Pro-Life votes back to the Dems.

[Mercat]

I'm tempted to send this to my brother, a pro-life Democrat who has managed to rationalize voting for Clinton and Gore. In 1992 I left the Democratic party for this reason and also because of the hypocracy I saw during the first Gulf War. I started listening to Rush and it was all GOP all the time after that.

[Always Right]

Former Democrats who felt the party has abandoned pro-lifers entirely have been in contact with Democrats for Life of America once they found out it exists.

I am sure a guy who vowed to give a pro-abortion litmus test for all judge appointments will attract lots of pro-lifers to the party....

[steve8714]

The Republican party has not "highjacked anything. The democrat party knows that its Catholic base will vote union rather than Catholic.

[goldstategop]

Nope. Pro-life liberals won't vote for him.

[ServesURight]

The liberal media always whines how the Republicans don't include pro-abortionists in their party.

[Qwinn]

The reason the Dems have gone so absolutist in their pro-choice position is because they've gone absolutist in their communist, far-left positions. That position includes eugenics, euthanasia, the weeding out of undesirable elements of society. Abortion is the wedge to bring it all in, by causing people to desensitize to and then devalue life. That's all it was ever about.

Qwinn

[goldstategop]

You must be kidding. The GOP includes pro-choice RINOs like Maine's Weak Sisters and Arlen Specter.

[goldstategop]

And don't forget Lincoln Chaffee.

[Mercat]

I just had an epiphany. My Catholic ancestors were never union, did not come through Ellis Island, came through New Orleans in 1848 and were farmers. No wonder that culturally, I've never fit in to the Church, even in the midwest.

[harpu]

Has this bum, Kerry, been tossed from his Massachussett's church yet for his pro-abortion views!?! Heard it was going to happen, has it?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Just wait till the pro-life Democrats see their party's platform at the convention. Are they in for a shock.

[uncbob]

"Why has the Republican Party been allowed to hijack the Democratic Party on the issue?"

HIJACK
Cut me a break the democrats abandonned the Pro lifers long ago for the death culture

[Qwinn]

Not to mention Christie Whitman... who actually VETOED a partial birth abortion ban in New Jersey. I was so nauseated.

Qwinn

[steve8714]

Although mine came through Ellis and were Irish, no unions in my Green side. Oddly enough, my Orange side was all union and all Democrat. I am speaking of the only Catholic constituency left in the party, union members and "sympathizers"; generally construction or public sector.

[xzins]

Make no mistake, the Dem Party is now the Socialist Party. Socialism, if it is nothing else, is historically committed to atheism. There can be no sanctity of life for atheists or socialists.....not in any ultimate sense.

Therefore, unless socialism is excised from the Democratic Party, any "pro-life democrats" will be mere window dressing tokens.

[eyespysomething]

National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) endorsed Kerry either yesterday or this morning.

I was shocked, to say the least. (/ sarcasm)

[Kenny500c]

"Those looking for another reason why party members defected need only look at the House Democrats' vigorous and unsuccessful opposition to the pending Unborn Victims of Violence bill. If adopted, it would penalize attacks on a pregnant woman as separate federal crimes against the fetus and the mother. Doctors performing legal abortions would be exempted."

Kerry voted against this in the Senate.

[NarniaSC]

My most recently updated list of pro-life dems in Congress (S=Senate) - keep them in your prayers:
AR: Pryor (S), Berry
GA: Miller (S - newly pro-life)
IL: Lipinski, Costello
KY: Lucas
LA: John, Breaux (S)
ME: Michaud
MA: Lynch
MI: Stupak, Kildee
MN: Peterson, Oberstar
MS: Taylor
MO: Skelton
NE: Nelson (S)
NV: Reid (S)
NY: McNulty
NC: McIntyre
OH: Ryan
PA: Kanjorski, Murtha, Doyle, Holden
RI: Langevin
TN: Davis
TX: Hall, Stenholm, Ortiz
WV: Mollohan, Rahall

[xzins]

I will pray that they leave that socialist party never to return.