A line in the sand

Richard A. Sokerka

It’s non-negotiable.

 That’s what Tom Perez, the new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said last week about the party’s support for abortion on demand in the platform of the party. And, he added, all Democrats better be in lock-step with it or they will not gain the party’s support.

Obviously, there is no room at the Democrats’ inn for members of the party who are pro-life. Perez’s words eerily echoed those of N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, who said in 2014 that pro-life activists were not welcome in his state and should leave.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, reacted to the announcement by the DNC’s chair pledging support only for pro-abortion candidates by calling the pledge “very disturbing,” He urged party members to “challenge their leadership to recant this intolerant position.”

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, said, “Pro-life Democrats are deeply concerned about this extreme position that the Democratic Party has taken and this non-negotiable position.” Day said Perez was “strong-arming” party members “to step away from their conscience and not support the pro-life position anymore.”

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, said Perez was decisively alienating the 23 percent of Democrat voters who identify as pro-life and 44 percent of Democrats who oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.

“The March for Life has a 44-year track record of uniting people of all backgrounds in defense of the inherent dignity of all human life,” she said.

But Perez insisted that there is no place for pro-life politicians in the party. “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” he said. “This is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”

No surprise was the statement by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) praising Perez for defending the “core values” of the Democratic Party.

And “core values” they are indeed! Under the banner of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic Party platform called not only for abortion access but also for the overturning of decades-old policies that prohibited direct taxpayer funding of abortions both at home and abroad – the Hyde Amendment and the Helms Amendment.

Cardinal Dolan said, “True solidarity with pregnant women and their children transcends all party lines. Abortion doesn’t empower women. Indeed, women deserve better than abortion. “

Women most certainly deserve better, but the line drawn in the sand over abortion rights by the DNC is blind to that. Sadly, the DNC’s rigid pro-choice platform leaves no choice for its party members who value the sanctity of life in the womb.