The conservative political conference known as CPAC is under fire from pro-life advocates today for not having any panels on pro-life issues during its multi-day agenda. The conference has had pro-life panels before and will have speakers and elected officials who are pro-life.
But, while its panel discussion groups will cover a range of economic, foreign policy and even social issues from a conservative vantage point, there will be no panels covering abortion issues from a pro-life perspective.
CPAC has historically had well-attended panels on pro-life issues and it’s regrettable that organizers of the event appear to have dropped them this year. The conservative movement functions best when it embraces all three legs of the stool – with conservatives articulating positions on social, economic and foreign policy issues.
Especially during an election year where every vote is needed to take the Senate away from Harry Reid and his left-wing, pro-abortion friends, CPAC should be doing everything possible to motivate and empower conservatives of all stripes to get involved.
That is a similar disappointment other pro-life activists expressed in comments to Breitbart:
Pro-lifers note there are important panels on the IRS scandal, immigration, Common Core, privacy, gun control, and criminal justice reform–issues in which pro-lifers would be keenly interested. Pro-lifers generally pride themselves on being “full spectrum conservatives”; that is, supporters of the three-legged stool: economics, national security, and moral issues. So they would not complain about panels covering these issues.
But they note other panels on career counseling, methods of making friends, pot smoking, making posts go Upworthy, and even one on Vaccines vs. Leeches, and wonder if there is no room for a panel or two on life issues–issues that motivate a tremendous number of grassroots activists who also vote conservative.
Kristan Hawkins, the young president of Students for Life of America, said:
While CPAC certainly has pro-life politicians speaking, this year they have apparently chosen not to have a panel addressing abortion, the greatest human rights issue our nation faces. In the wake of the left’s successful “war on women” campaign, CPAC should be the place where conservatives go and discuss how to counter these disgusting claims and how abortion should be brought up in political races.
Allan Parker of the Justice Foundation said, “I will say the Republican Party will die if it rejects the pro-life position.”
Prolific pro-life researcher/analyst Professor Michael New of the University of Michigan said:
CPAC has always advertised itself as a conference where a wide variety of conservatives could network and engage ideas. As such, it is disappointing that this year’s CPAC offers precious little of interest to social conservatives. On the CPAC program, there are no panels dealing with abortion, traditional marriage, or religious liberty. While there are a number of other panels dealing with interesting and important subjects, the fact that CPAC has neglected issues of interest to social conservatives is disheartening.
