DNC Chair Tom Perez to Meet With Pro-Life Democrats

[Jose Garcia]

Source: The Atlantic

Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez plans to meet with pro-life group Democrats for Life of America, amid an ongoing controversy within the party over whether and to what extent Democrats should pursue voters who oppose abortion. Democrats for Life advocates for pro-life Democrats and describes itself as “the pro-life voice of the Democratic Party.”

The meeting, which the DNC is setting up at the group’s request, is one of several conversations that Perez is having with pro-choice and pro-life Democrats, an aide to Perez confirmed to The Atlantic. As part of that outreach, Perez has spoken with Democratic elected officials and party leaders, and held a meeting earlier this month with women’s groups. The effort comes at a time when prominent Democrats are attempting to walk a fine line between affirming their party’s pro-choice platform and suggesting that there is room in the party for pro-life voters and candidates.

The party’s 2016 platform supports access to “safe and legal abortion,” and vows that Democrats will “oppose, and seek to overturn, federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion.” The DNC recently named Jess O’Connell as it’s new CEO, the former executive director of EMILY’s List, which works to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.

Earlier this month, Nebraska Democratic candidate Heath Mello lost a mayoral election in Omaha following national backlash over his “personally pro-life” views, and legislative record on access to abortion. At least some of Mello’s supporters in Nebraska believe fallout from the controversy stalled the campaign’s momentum at a crucial point in the race.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/democrats-abortion-pro-life-pro-choice-tom-perez-dnc/526551/?utm_source=atltw

[KPN]

1. Get the popcorn ready.

[William769]

2. This is really simple.

It's in our party platform. Moving away from this would be a disaster. Look what happens every time the repukes change their party platform. It's always for the worse. Changing ours about being pro choice, is a platform I cannot and will not accept.

[niyad]

3. anti-choice "dems" are still woman-hating anti-choicers. and I have no use for people

who deny my right to bodily integrity and autonomy.

[not fooled]

6. Yep

and, as you point out, the correct terminology is "anti choice."

[brooklynite]

12. Name an anti-choice Democrat...

One can be "pro life" and not impose that view on others through legislation.

[cstanleytech]

15. I agree but you can be pro life and still be pro choice its the

anti choice people that are the real problem.

[Hekate]

4. I am fine with pro-lifers who keep their personal choices personal, and leave the rest of us alone

Welcome to the Democratic Party, where you can choose not to ever have an abortion if that's what you want.

However our Party platform stays the same.

[haele]

9. I'm okay if they keep their belief personal, and promise to work to include in the Dem platform-

Programs that will:

1) Reduce the number of unwanted or accidental pregnancies by providing comprehensive contraception policies and affordable/subsidized-free contraception products on demand,

2) Provide subsidies for and/or single payer universal OB/GYN clinical care nation wide, especially in underserved rural and inner-city communities,

3) Provide universal free 24 hour child care (to third/forth grade) for working or student parents under the median wage, and sliding level subsidized child care for working/student parents above that make over the median wage. Parents working multiple jobs or shift work should not be afraid to take a shift job just because they had children when they thought they were more financially secure.

4) Implement a "sick child" caretaker program where subsidized or free health care workers will care for a sick child of working parents when that child cannot go to child care or school, either at home or in a drop-off clinic facility. (This can also be linked to the CDC to monitor public health)

5) Strengthen the Social Services safety net and labor laws so that an unexpected pregnancy does not severely impact the ability of a family to maintain economically stability over a long period of time.

If a Democrat is "pro life", then rather than reducing choice and weakening a critical medical procedure, they should be working to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and the impact of children on family sustainability.

I look at it this way -

Republicans are all about taking resources away if "they doesn't work exactly as planned". One size fits all, at a discount. If it doesn't meet specifications, just get rid of it and start over again, no matter how many people are impacted, because investment = money, not society at large.

Democrats should be about making a situation better by providing options so that everyone is better off in the long run. So a Pro-Life Democrat should be really into making sure that when a child is born, it's 1) wanted, and 2) can thrive. That all children born can truly Live instead of just exist. Not about punishing the mom, or endangering the mom just because there was nasty sex involved, or the sin of Eve, or some other such nonsense.

Investment = betterment of society, not just money.

Haele

[Hekate]

10. Absolutely

[niyad]

24. I would love to see this as its own OP, for greater visibility, and so we can rec it!!

[VWolf]

5. I'd be ok with it under one condition:

They change their name to "Democrats for Forced Birth"

[moda253]

7. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[murielm99]

8. This should never have been a controversy at all.

[duhneece]

11. Excuse me! That would be all of us. We are the pro-choicers, TOO

All of us who fought against unjustified wars, fought for health care & education are definitely pro-life. Why the flying f would he use that term to define the anti-choicers?

[LiberalLovinLug]

14. I hate that too

I can understand that that is the word they have coined for themselves for years now and also it would be a veiled insult to use the term antichoice (even though it is true). But I wish they'd find another term for them. Because it implies that if you are pro-choice, it is the same as being anti-life.

I think its simple. The Democratic party only has to say that their position is to provide abortion services for women that choose it. But that they also respect women (and men) that have strong feelings about the definition on when life actually begins. Personally, I myself am not certain on that issue. But for one, I'm a guy, so I don't think I have any right to tell a woman what to do with her body. And whatever my personal position on that question, a woman's choice 'trumps' that. (I hate that the word 'trump' is now forever stained)

Its the same as gay marriage in a way. That you respect the rights of same sex couples to marry as is the right of non same sex couples. And those are the laws you will promote. But make it clear that you still respect those that do not share the same opinion, and that you believe that they have the right not to marry another person of the same sex. That you will always support traditional marriage as well. That it doesn't have to be one or the other.

[berksdem]

13. wolves in sheep's clothing...

I am fine if they have a personal belief but I will not stand for my party going anti-choice...

[mopinko]

16. only if they believe this. goes double if they are catholic.

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin[edit]
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago helped publicize the consistent life ethic idea in 1983.[6] Initially, Bernardin spoke out against nuclear war and abortion. However, he quickly expanded the scope of his view to include all aspects of human life. In one of the first speeches given on the topic at Fordham University, Bernardin said: "The spectrum of life cuts across the issues of genetics, abortion, capital punishment, modern warfare and the care of the terminally ill."[7] Bernardin said that although each of the issues was distinct, nevertheless the issues were linked since the valuing and defending of (human) life were, he believed, at the center of both issues. Cardinal Bernardin told an audience in Portland, Oregon: "When human life is considered 'cheap' or easily expendable in one area, eventually nothing is held as sacred and all lives are in jeopardy."[7]

Bernardin drew his stance from New Testament principles, specifically of forgiveness and reconciliation, yet he argued that neither the themes nor the content generated from those themes were specifically Christian.[8] By doing this, Bernardin attempted to create a dialogue with others who were not necessarily aligned with Christianity.

Bernardin and other advocates of this ethic sought to form a consistent policy that would link abortion, capital punishment, economic injustice, euthanasia, and unjust war.[2] Bernardin sought to unify conservative Catholics (who opposed abortion) and liberal Catholics (who opposed capital punishment) in the United States. By relying on fundamental principles, Bernardin also sought to coordinate work on several different spheres of Catholic moral theology. In addition, Bernardin argued that since the 1950s the church had moved against its own historical, casuistic exceptions to the protection of life. "To summarize the shift succinctly, the presumption against taking human life has been strengthened and the exceptions made ever more restrictive."[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consistent_life_ethic

[DFW]

17. STOP calling these people "Pro-Life" already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are against abortion rights. Call them Anti-Abortion-Rights.

Unless they are equally as vocal against the death penalty--AND vegan--there is nothing that earns them the label "pro-life."

[hamsterjill]

18. Democrats for Life????

Sounds like a Republican group trying to inch its way in to the Democratic Party.

Anything less than allowing a woman the right to control her own body is unacceptable. End of story.

[dembotoz]

19. They can do whatever they want...just don't expect me to support or vote for one

[qwlauren35]

20. The pro-life issue is big in the black community.

It plays out differently. Not so much as a political ideology, but as a cultural taboo. In some segments of the black community, abortion is unthinkable and Not a Choice. You get pregnant, you raise the child. Or you get someone in the family to raise the child if you are fundamentally incapable.

I think it is not just "pro-life", but "pro-family". And I have seen families rally to support teens who have children. Abortion is simply not on the table.

With this type of mind-set, there is a need for dialogue. Some folks call themselves pro-life, and they are VERY uncomfortable with the pro-choice platform, but stay with the party because of the racism in the Republican party. The Republicans woo them constantly, and in some areas, the Republicans are winning.

So no, I would not call these people fake Democrats. Just, anti-abortion Democrats. And we really can't afford to lose them, so we need to find ways to help them get comfortable with the pro-choice platform. The idea of expanding the definition of pro-choice to an education in sexual consequences, might make the pro-family/anti-abortion Democrats happier.

[Starry Messenger]

21. I await the day that "pro-life" will be correctly located as a bigoted position against women

[Wabbajack_]

22. Xian fundamentalism has no place in the Democratic party.

No matter how "red" the district is,

[WhiteTara]

23. Didn't we used to call these Blue Dogs?