Pro-Life Isn't Partisan: Kristen Day Makes The Case For Pro-Life Democrats

On January 26th at a Fox News Townhall, Pete Buttigieg the former Mayor of South Bend and Democratic presidential candidate was asked a question about abortion by a Democratic activist.

Kristen Day of Democrats For Life of America asked Mr. Buttigieg if he would support changing the Democratic Party for 2020 to more inclusive language that would recognize the diversity of views on abortion among Democratic voters.

Unfortunately Pete rejected her rather modest appeal out of hand.

Ms. Day published an opinion piece discussing the exchange in which she brings up a few points that are relevant to the exchange.

First, the Democratic party's recent history on abortion in their platform:

"The Democratic Party used to support a position that welcomes pro-life members. The 1996 and 2000 Democratic platforms noted that we are “a party of inclusion” and “we respect the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue.”
But in 2012, the platform removed the word "rare" in its discussion of abortion and, in 2016, the party officially called for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibit federal health care programs from funding the procedure."

Second, she presented some statistics on Democratic voters and their opinions on abortion:

"According to Gallup, 59% of Democrats support at least some restrictions on abortion, and 29% actively identify themselves as pro-life.
Nationwide, 20% of pro-life Democrats say they’d only vote for a pro-life candidate, according to a 2019 Public Religion Research Institute poll. States like Louisiana, West Virginia and Kentucky have Democratic voters who dislike the president in every respect — except his stance on abortion." 

"His position that we should not draw a line on abortion goes against the polling. More than 17 million Democrats identified as pro-life in 2016, and 44% of Democrats support drawing the line to, at most, the first three months of pregnancy, according to a recent Marist poll.
According to our analysis of nationally representative data from Harvard, in 176 Democrat-held congressional districts nationwide, a majority of the population supports banning late-term abortions after 20 weeks gestation."

One of the results of the sorting that has occurred in our politics is that the elected politicians, candidates and parties have more monolithic positions on the issue of abortion for political reasons.

Abortion becoming a political football that is used to get-out-the-vote or to fund-raise off of is not furthering the pro-life cause. Close followers of the pro-life movement will note that gains have been very modest despite bold claims and big promises by Republican elected officials at the state and national levels.

If one party controls each side of an issue it is easy to pay lip service to that issue for electoral gain and keep the issue alive as a political issue to pull out for use at the next campaign. There is a perverse disincentive to actually end the issue of abortion because it is to useful to both parties electorally.

The abolition of abortion and support for life is a moral cause, not a political one. We may need to use politics to reach our goals but we should not subsume our goals in the muck of partisan politics. The pro-life movement will be healthier and more effective when we can be clear that it is not simply a synonym for Republican but when we can gain a foothold in both major political parties and win the argument in both venues.

I have no doubt there are a long list of issues upon which I disagree with Ms. Day on public policy but on the issue of life she is my ally. It is sad that Mr. Buttigieg's heart is so hardened that he would not even consider granting the millions of Democrats like Ms. Day even a modicum of understanding and fellowship.