Status of Democrats for Life Questioned After Pro-Life Criticism

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 29, 2010   |   7:47PM   |   Washington, DC

December 30th Update: The organization’s web site is back up and Day tells LifeNews.com: “Nothing has changed with regard to the status of DFLA or my involvement.” She did not say why the web site was down or why her Facebook status indicated she “worked” for DFLA, in the past tense.

Update 2: Janet Robert, the president of DFLA also responded to a LifeNews.com query, saying the organization is still alive and kicking. She, too, did not provide any explanation for why the web site was down or why Day’s Facebook page says she “worked” for the organization.

Update 3: Day emailed LifeNews.com again saying she made a mistake when updating her Facebook profile, making it appear she no longer worked for DFLA. “We are not sure why the site was down.  Our tech people are looking into it,” she added.

The status of Democrats for Life of America is in doubt after the organization spent the year coming under fire from numerous pro-life groups for its role supporting ObamaCare.

The organization was the only pro-life group to support the bill, which allows abortion funding and has rationing concerns, and it maintained weak abortion funding limits in the legislation were sufficient to allay the concerns hundreds of other pro-life groups presented.

Democrats for Life came under additional criticism for its public attacks on several pro-life groups relating to the legislation and its participation in supporting a complaint Congressman Steve Driehaus, a pro-life Democrat who voted for ObamaCare, filed against the Susan B. Anthony List. The complaint would have fined the pro-life group and put its president or staff in prison for telling the truth about Driehaus’ vote in a billboard campaign.

The organization also was rebuked by pro-life advocates for disclosing private and sensitive email communications in supporting the complaint and some pro-life organizations pledged they would no longer work with DFLA officials or its executive director, Kristen Day.

Today, the website of Democrats for Life no longer functions and a phone number previously associated with the organization does not mention it.

On FaceBook, Day’s personal page listed a planned event for the organization on January 24.

“We will be hosting our annual March for Life Breakfast on Monday, January 24, 2010. On January 23, 2010, we will be hosting a roundtable discussion on Strategy for 2011 and hear from DFLA State Chapter leaders. Please mark your calanders [sic] and plan to attend the March for Life,” a November 23 post says.

However, Day has not posted anything since then and her biography section indicates she “worked” at Democrats for Life of America.

The Democrats for Life page on Facebook contains entries on December 19 linking to news stories unrelated to pro-life issues, but one very active DFLA supporter posted a public comment on the page noting DFLA opted out of receiving online donations, which he called “strange.”

Day’s personal Twitter account also contains no recent updates on the status of Democrats for Life beyond a a late November press release promising to supposedly hold pro-life groups accountable on the issue of ObamaCare.

LifeNews.com has attempted to contact DFLA officials and has not yet received a response.