Democratic Party Platform is Even More Pro-Abortion Than Ever Before, Here’s How

I’d meant to get to a story that appeared Friday in the Washington Post about the Democrats’ platform [“Democrats release draft of platform, with shifts to left on death penalty, abortion, taxes”] but time got away from me.

Here’s David Weigel’s lead:

The Democratic National Committee released the latest draft of its 2016 platform late Friday afternoon, a week after Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) promised to fight “on the floor of the convention” if more progressive planks did not make it in.

Weigel tells his readers reporters previously only had a summary of the platform and a leak on which to base stories about the party’s platform. “After multiple requests from the media, and at least one leak, the party is effectively giving the public one week to peruse the language before the full platform committee meets in Orlando.”

So what is the party’s position on abortion? Only a tiny portion of the section is included. Instead Weigel talks about how, for “the first time, the 2016 Democratic platform says that the party will attempt to repeal the Hyde Amendment.”

We will continue to oppose — and seek to overturn — federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment … we support the repeal of harmful restrictions that obstruct women’s access to health care information and services, including the “global gag rule” and the Helms Amendment that bars U.S. assistance to provide safe, legal abortion throughout the developing world.

Translated out of AbortionSpeak and into English, what is the party is going after?

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

The Hyde Amendment is a provision attached to the annual appropriations bill that covers many federal health programs (including Medicaid). More federal funding means more–lots more–dead babies.

The most conservative estimates are that at least a million people (not to count their descendants) are alive today because of the Hyde Amendment. Testifying before a congressional committee in 2011, NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said NRLC “believes that the Hyde Amendment has proven itself to be the greatest domestic abortion-reduction law ever enacted by Congress.”

The public overwhelming supports not allowing federal funding of abortion.

Getting rid of the Hyde Amendment is a major priority for Hillary Clinton, the pro-abortion presumptive Democratic nominee for President.

The Helms Amendment is a law that prohibits the use of certain types of foreign aid funds for abortion “as a method of family planning.”

Weigel says there are other portions of the platform that Clinton would not agree with. She agrees 100% with the platform on abortion.

Just a word about the remainder of the section on “Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice.” Here are the first three sentences, which is indicative:

“Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice. We believe unequivocally that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion–regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured. We believe that reproductive health is core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and wellbeing.”