Abortion Activist Nancy Keenan, Barney Frank Join DNC Platform Cmte

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 19, 2012   |   11:10AM   |   Washington, DC

Pro-abortion activist Nancy Keenan and Barney Frank, the longtime pro-abortion member of Congress from Massachusetts are two of the members of the Democratic Party’s platform committee that will meet in August.

Keenan, who recently announced she will leave her post as the head of the pro-abortion group NARAL, will ensure the DNC platform stays fully supportive of abortion on demand and paid for at taxpayer expense.

National Right to Life Committee president Carol Tobias noticed Keenan’s membership on the platform panel and responded on Twitter: “NARAL’s Keenan placed on DNC Platform Committee. Guess their radical pro-abortion position won’t be changing any time soon.”

The full platform committee will vote on a proposed platform August 10-12, while meeting in Detroit. The platform drafting committee will hold the hearing in Minnesota and platform proposals can be submitted at www.democrats.org/platform until 5 p.m. EST on July 20.

The platform committee chair is former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, an abortion advocate who was opposed by pro-life advocates in his state. Committee members include pro-abortion former U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho, pro-abortion Rep. Barbara Lee, and pro-abortion former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, among others.

Keenan, Frank and the other abortion advocates join Planned Parenthood consultant Andy Grossman, who was named as the National Platform Director for the Democratic National Convention’s platform panel. Grossman is head of Grossman Solutions, a political consulting firm that the nation’s biggest abortion business has hired as a strategist for its political operations.

In contrast, the Republican Party recently announced pro-life Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will head the GOP platform committee that will draft the new party platform when Republicans from across the country gather for the national convention later this summer.

At the convention, which is expected to nominate Mitt Romney to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama, Republicans will adopt another platform, which has been pro-life since 1980, when the Republican Party adopted a position supporting the Human Life Amendment. The platform stood in stark contrast to the pro-abortion plank Democrats approved.

The 2008 GOP platform contains strong pro-life statements of position on abortion.

“Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the final GOP platform said. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children,” it added.

With the Supreme Court serving as the main arbiter of abortion law in the United States, the Republican Party expressed its support for the kind of sensible judges its presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he would nominate.

“We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life,” it said in 2008.

The platform talked about the progress pro-life advocates have made in moving towards the day when unborn children are protected under the law and applauded the Supreme Court for upholding the partial-birth abortion ban.

It also noted the party’s opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for parental involvement initiatives.

The Republican Party platform also applauded the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which became an issue in the presidential election as Barack Obama opposed an Illinois version of that law, which required proper medical care for newborns who survive botched abortions.

The GOP also included strong statements supporting pregnant women, but went further than their Democratic counterparts.

“We all have a moral obligation to assist, not to penalize, women struggling with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy,” it says. “At its core, abortion is a fundamental assault on the sanctity of innocent human life. Women deserve better than abortion.”

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“Every effort should be made to work with women considering abortion to enable and empower them to choose life,” it went on to say.

The GOP platform also included calls to oppose euthanasia and protect people with disabilities like Terri Schiavo.

“Respect for life requires efforts to include persons with disabilities in education, employment, the justice system, and civic participation,” it said.