Democrats for Life has been saying for years that the party must welcome pro-life lawmakers into its fold.
Instead, the party has moved to adopt increasingly radical positions on abortion. In July, the Democratic National Convention adopted a platform on abortion that was so extreme that even some Democrats called it “crazy.” The plank calls to force taxpayers to fund abortions, and supports abortion for any reason through all nine months of pregnancy.
Author Stephen Markley supports abortion, but, in a recent column for Paste, he argued that the Democratic Party should take a step back on its abortion extremism and start embracing pro-life politicians, as well as those who support abortion.
Markley assured his liberal readers that he “believes in the autonomy of a woman’s body and her prerogative to do with it as she wishes, whether that’s have an abortion, get an IUD, or vote for Donald Trump.”
However, he said the results of the recent election led him to believe that the Democratic Party needs to change. Markley noted that the party’s abortion position is out of touch with most Americans.
He wrote:
But the progressive wave! Opinions are changing! Gay marriage is legal now!
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Unlike many other issues about which my generation has become vastly more left-wing than our parents or grandparents, abortion remains stuck in an even divide. … 53% of 18-34 year-olds identify as pro-choice, fewer than in 2001. There is some evidence that young people are even less accepting of abortion than their parents.
Research also indicates that young pro-lifers are more passionate and active than young people who identify as pro-choice on abortion.
Similarly, recent post-election polling found that 49 percent of Americans said abortion affected their vote, with 31 percent saying they voted for candidates who opposed abortion and 18 percent saying they voted for candidates who supported abortion.
This fits with Markley’s explanation of why Republican Donald Trump won:
How could Evangelicals vote for Trump? This is what the Democratic bubble asked itself over and over. How could they flip-flop so brazenly, defy their supposed morals so absolutely, and support this divorced, philandering, sexual-assault-declaring moral leper? But the pro-life voter did what he or she had to do. They rightly determined that if Clinton won, any chance at overturning Roe v. Wade would be lost for a generation, if not forever. If Trump won, however, thanks to Republican intransigence on Obama nominee Merrick Garland, he would likely appoint the fourth and fifth votes to overturn Roe (with Thomas, Roberts, and Alito already surefire).
Compare that to Clinton who openly stated during the last presidential debate that she supported late-term abortions of babies who could survive outside the womb. On the campaign trail, she also mentioned supporting gruesome partial-birth abortions. Both are considered to be abhorrent by a strong majority of Americans.
Markley posed that the Democratic Party should consider that its losing streak may be tied to the American people’s opinions about abortion.
He concluded:
Since the issue [abortion] first rose to national prominence, the Democrats have never held a majority in either chamber of congress that did not include pro-life members. If the Democratic Party wants to be a big tent, it has to be big enough to support and elect pro-life candidates. That is political reality. Even if demographics favor it in presidential election years (and a fat lot of good that did in 2016), in the House, the Senate, and most state legislatures it is, paradoxically, going to be impossible to challenge anti-abortion dominance without pro-life candidates.
The Democratic Party would do well to listen to Markely, Democrats for Life and others if it wants to continue representing Americans as a major political party. Polling consistently shows that most Americans oppose most abortions. And as modern research and technology reveal new understandings about human life and a baby’s development in the womb, as investigations uncover scandal after scandal in the abortion industry, as women and former abortion workers come forward to describe how they were hurt and deceived, and with tens of millions of unborn babies dead from abortion, Americans are turning away from the pro-abortion movement and embracing a culture that values every human life.
