The group Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) met with Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic Party, last week, for the first time since Mr Perez implied all Democrats must support abortion rights.
Mr Perez made the statement after being heavily criticised by groups favouring abortion rights for supporting Heath Mello, a Democratic mayoral candidate in Omaha, Nebraska, who was “personally opposed to abortion.”
During the campaign, Mr Perez responded to the criticism and took issue with Mr Mello for his failure to support abortion. “Every Democrat,” he said, “like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. That is not negotiable.”
Mr Mello lost the race in May to the pro-life Republican incumbent Jean Stothert.
“Our Democratic Party is in deep trouble, losing more than 1000 legislative seats since 2008,” said Kristen Day, executive director of DFLA after the meeting with Mr Perez. “Telling one-third of Democrats that their support for life in the womb is inconsistent with Democratic values will not help rebuild our numbers. We asked for the meeting to explain to Tom Perez how embracing pro-life Democrats could help the party win again.”
Ms Day said they asked Mr Perez to state clearly that the party has no litmus test on the issue, that the party return its platform stance to one of neutrality on the issue of federal funding for abortions, and that the party offer support to pro-life Democrats running for office.
Writing about the meeting, DFLA board member, theologian Charles Camosy said the group highlighted two case studies, one in which the party backed a pro-life Democrat in Tennessee, who won his congressional race, and another in Utah where the party backed an abortion rights’ activist over a pro-life Democrat, only to see the pro-choice activist lose that election by more than 40 points. Professor Camosy said the point of the meeting with Mr Perez was to drive home the point that the “Democratic Party needs to fundamentally rethink its relationship with Naral-style abortion orthodoxy.” Naral is the largest pro-abortion rights interest group in the country.
PICTURE: A participant holds a sign with the words ''I am the pro-life generation'' and a ''Choose Life''at March for Life, Washington, D.C, 27 January, 2017
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