Abortion Activists Target One of the Few Pro-Life Democrats Left in Congress

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 29, 2017   |   6:19PM   |   Washington, DC

Abortion activists are trying to make the Democratic Party the abortion party by targeting one of the last pro-life Democrats in Congress.

U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Democrat from Illinois, has served in Congress since 2004. He has a pro-life voting record, with one of his most recent key votes being for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which prohibits abortions after 20 weeks when strong scientific evidence indicates unborn babies can feel pain.

The Hill reports several pro-abortion “progressive” groups are fighting to unseat Lipinski in the primary because he supports protections for unborn babies.

“Time is up for Congressman Lipinski. For too long, Dan Lipinski has ignored the needs of working families across Illinois, by pushing his fringe ideological agenda at the expense of women and families across the state,” said Ilyse Hogue, the president of pro-abortion NARAL, in a statement.

NARAL is a radical pro-abortion group that supports taxpayer funding of abortions and attacks groups that offer choices other than abortion to pregnant women. Their candidate of choice for the seat is Marie Newman, who supports abortion on demand.

“… Marie Newman holds equality and self-determination as non-negotiable and will fight for all of our rights, including our reproductive freedom. NARAL members are proud to stand with Marie Newman as she fights to give Illinois families a voice in Congress,” Hogue said.

Joining NARAL in opposing Lipinski is Democracy for America.

Executive director Charles Chamberlain claimed that the pro-life congressman’s “right-wing ideology is profoundly out of step with a twenty-first century Democratic Party.”

This may be true, but the same could be said for the 21st century Democratic Party’s radical left-wing ideology in comparison to the general public.

The party has taken an increasingly radical stance on abortion. In 2016, the Democratic Party adopted a platform calling for full support of abortion for any reason up to birth as well as taxpayer funding of abortions. Both are widely unpopular positions among the general public.

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What’s more, party leaders have been debating whether to stop supporting pro-life Democrats like Lipinski altogether.

The debate really flared up in the spring after NARAL criticized DNC Chair Tom Perez, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others for supporting Heath Mello, a Nebraska Democratic mayoral candidate who has a pro-life voting record.

Amid pressure from abortion activists, Perez described abortion as a “fundamental value” and said every Democrat should support it. But afterward, Perez faced some pushback from members of his own party.

Later, Tom Steyer, the single largest donor to the Democratic Party in recent years, announced that he will give money only to pro-abortion candidates.

Democrats for Life estimates more than 23 million Democrats in the U.S. are pro-life. Last year, Pew Research found that 28 percent of Democrats say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. Marist/KofC polling also found that 23 percent of Democrats consider themselves pro-life and 40 percent say abortion is morally wrong.

Abortion activists do not seem to realize just how radical and out of touch their abortion agenda is with voters. Polls consistently show that most Americans do not want their tax dollars paying for abortions.

A Politico/Harvard University poll in October 2016 found that a majority of voters oppose taxpayer funding for abortions. Just 36 percent of likely voters supported the issue, while 58 percent opposed it. These findings are consistent with previous polls from various groups.

Most Americans also oppose most abortions and want laws to limit abortions or make them illegal. According to a recent Gallup poll, just 29 percent of Americans want unlimited abortion up to birth.