New Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez is willing to make abortion a partisan issue, threatening to run prolife Democrats out of the party. His comments come after several high-profile Democrats were willing to include a local candidate with some prolife votes in his past in a party event. This past weekend Perez said, "Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state."
Not so fast, my friend.
It's important to point out what he really means here: every Democrat must support taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy, even partial-birth abortion.
A recent General Social Survey study in 2016 showed that just 54.4% of those who say they are "strong Democrats" and 51.9% of those that call themselves "Democrats" thought that abortion should be legal for any reason. That tells us that if the Democrats were really willing to act on Perez's demands, they would be running half of their base out of the party. In a time when the Democratic Party is doing a "Unity Tour," Perez's demand just furthers the partisan divide over abortion.
Right to Life of Michigan is a nonpartisan organization. Our mission is to restore legal protection to the unborn, to educate people
on identified prolife issues, to motivate them to
action, to encourage community programs that foster respect for human life and
to support prolife candidates. The Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee endorses candidates who are prolife and will be the most effective voice for the unborn, regardless of their party affiliation. Other issues are beyond the scope of our mission. We often get criticized for this, but we do it because your opinion of the value of the unborn child can be independent of your views on tax policy, trade policy, foreign policy, etc. We seek to unite as many people together to solve an issue that takes far more lives than any other issue.
Historically the RLM-PAC has endorsed many candidates of both parties. While the Republican Party as a whole has grown in the prolife direction over the last half century, the Democratic Party has grown in the opposite direction. Many prolife Democrats feel disenfranchised, forced to choose between their views on other issues and the life of vulnerable unborn children. Our model is to persuade voters of both parties and change their party platforms as much as possible. The model of the abortion industry is to hijack an entire political party and purge those who disagree through the party apparatus. It's easier to pursue that model when the government sends you more than $500 million in tax dollars every year. Money talks in politics.
In spite of pressure from national leadership, there are still prolife Democrats committed to ending abortion. State Representative Brian Elder, the first term Democrat from Bay City, is one current example. Their willingness to take a stance on an issue that is not always popular as party meetings shows a great amount of initiative and courage. Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recognizes the horrible implications of Perez' comments, despite her fervent support for abortion-on-demand.
If you are a prolife Democrat, then we urge you to tell Tom Perez to not forget about his voters. It is important that he recognizes that you can be prolife in any political party. Being prolife is not a partisan issue, it is a life or death issue.
Please contact the DNC and let them politely know what you think! Their phone number is (202)863-8000 and their address is:
Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol St Southeast
Washington, DC 20003.
