Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Democrats for Life, a national group seeking to reverse the party's intensely pro-abortion position, held their 4th annual Hall of Fame awards dinner Thursday night. At the event, they honored former Indiana congressman Tim Roemer for his outspoken pro-life views.

Roemer waged a well-regarded but unsuccessful bid for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.

During his campaign, he was panned by abortion advocates who excluded him from interviews they granted to other candidates Yet, Roemer received enough acclaim for his efforts to move the party in a more moderate direction on abortion that the eventual chairman, pro-abortion ex-Vermont Governor Howard Dean, tapped him to be a party spokesman.

"We have made more progress in the Democratic Party on the abortion issue in the last six months than we have in the have in the past 30 years," Roemer said in accepting the honor. "We will continue to make more."

The former 9-11 panel commissioner told the audience that society "can no longer tolerate a situation where we have as many abortions in this country a year as people dying due to terrorism and war in the world."

Roemer spoke in favor of the new 95-10 Initiative the pro-life organization is sponsoring. It's a bundle of legislative proposals Democrats for Life hopes Congress will approve that focus on reducing the number of abortions by 95 percent in 10 years.

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, who attended the gala, plans to introduce some of the bills in the next few weeks.

"Young women who find themselves with crisis pregnancies have few resources to turn to. The 95-10 Initiative says to women, we are with you," Ryan said.

Kristen Day, DFLA's executive director, said "momentum is clearly on our side" in the groups efforts to turn around the party.

She cited a Congressional election victory for a pro-life Democrat in Louisiana and the spotlight on her group at the annual March for Life.

"Pro-life Democrats are speaking out, and America is listening," Day said.

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields, a longtime pro-life advocate, also addressed the convention and analyzed the current status of pro-life Democrats within the party.

Related web sites:
Democrats For Life of America - http://www.democratsforlife.org