DENVER — The first thing that should be said about the pro-life Democrats’ town hall meeting here today is that it drew an overflow crowd. The next thing that should be said is that it was held in a very small room.
The large party caucuses — for gays, women and even "faith" — were assigned huge conference halls at the convention center. The pro-lifers met in the lower level of a small hotel a couple of blocks off the beaten path. They numbered less than 100, some 25 of whom turned out to be reporters trying to discern who these stalwarts were.
They were Democrats through and through, mostly Catholics struggling to square their church with their party, and they were encouraged by the pro-life language that, for the first time, made its way into the party platform to be adopted at this week’s convention.
The language that made them so excited appears below. See if you can find the pro-life part:
"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. The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to affordable family planning services and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman's decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre and post natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs."
Hint: It’s the sentence with the word “reduce” in it. One of the speakers, Georgetown University theology Professor Vince Miller, called that sentence “a monumental achievement.” After all, this is the Democratic Party.
Three members of Congress who addressed the crowd rightly criticized the Republicans, whose party has a strong pro-life plank but who failed to end abortion, even while controlling both houses of Congress and the White House. It is time, the pro-life Democrats claimed, to stop using abortion as a wedge issue and start helping pregnant women. They spoke up for a new bill, the Pregnant Women Support Act, which has some encouraging mandates to require more information, and health care, to be given to pregnant women, all designed to encourage them to carry their babies to term.
Still, for this intrepid little group, in this party, abortion may be a bridge too far. The pro-life Democratic lawmakers who spoke at the town hall meeting (Sen. Bob Casey, Pa.; Rep. Heath Shuler, N.C.; and Rep. Lincoln Davis, Tenn.) proudly promoted their bill, which would spend taxpayer money to help stop something about which their party platform speaks so glowingly.
If they can somehow square that circle, it truly would be a monumental achievement.
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Planned Parenthood — and the GOP — are going strong in Denver.
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