DNC Chair: Saying Life Begins at Conception “Extreme”

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 4, 2011   |   5:05PM   |   Washington, DC

The chair of the national Democratic Party has issued a statement on a vote taking place next week in Mississippi on an amendment saying human life begins at conception or fertilization. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democratic congresswoman chosen by President Barack Obama to head the party, called making such a statement “an extreme and radical step,” according to a new CNS News report.

“For the vast majority of Americans, including people on both sides of the abortion issue, this is an extreme and radical step,” she told reporters on a conference call and adding that it is supposedly a “divisive, dangerous, and destructive” attack on women.

“To American women, their reproductive health and choice is an intensely personal and private issue between themselves, their families, and their doctors,” the DNC chairwoman said. “But Republicans in Washington and across the country have tried to limit these rights, with their assault on Planned Parenthood in Congress and restrictive laws in the states being among several examples.”

“Now,” she said, according to CNS News, “the effort by the far right [is] to pass these so-called personhood amendments–divisive, dangerous, and destructive laws which would cripple a woman’s right to choose, limit access to birth control, and put the lives of women with difficult pregnancies at risk.”

The DNC chair said she is working in her own state to stop such an amendment.

“We’re sounding the alarm bells now because it’s absolutely critical that Floridians understand just how extreme this personhood campaign is, what it would do to not only a woman’s right to choose but to saving the lives of women, to the opportunity for parents to be–the opportunity for men and women to become parents when they’ve not been able to,” she said.

Promoting abortion is nothing new for Wasserman-Schulz and, in September, she criticized the news that a House committee will conduct an investigation of the Planned Parenthood abortion business, calling it a partisan attack.

“I am a strong supporter of congressional oversight, however, the scope and nature of this investigation is unprecedented, invasive, and the big-brother equivalent of a modern day denial-of-service attack,” said Wasserman Schultz, according to a Sun-Sentinel report. “Republicans, having failed to strip funds for Planned Parenthood’s essential health-care services through the legislative process, now appear to want to bury Planned Parenthood

The support from the head of the Democratic Party is no shock — she headlined a rally for Planned Parenthood in Augustfor the event sponsored by Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast, a local abortion affiliate.

Wasserman Schultz was named by pro-abortion President Barack Obama recently to take over as the head of the Democratic Party nationally and prepare for his re-election campaign next year. At the time of her appointment to the position, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards praised Wasserman Schultz as a “heroine” for her extensive abortion advocacy. The appointment made it clear Obama would not run from his lengthy pro-abortion record.