Anti-abortion, pro-Obama Dems seek clout

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

DENVER - Can one oppose abortion and yet support Sen. Barack Obama for president?

It turns a small number of Democrats here in Denver do.

And yet Obama has proclaimed his support for the Roe v. Wade decision that in 1973 made abortion legal nationwide.

Obama has also voted against a bill to prohibit the transportation of a minor girl across state lines to obtain an abortion, if this would circumvent the parental consent or notification laws in her home state.

He also voted against codifying a Bush administration regulation giving states the option of covering unborn children under the State Children's Health Insurance program.

Obama received a 100 percent rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a group which supports abortion rights.

The group gave Republican candidate Sen. John McCain a zero rating.

Kristen Day, the head of Democrats for Life, a group of Democratic activists who oppose abortion and want to see the Roe decision reversed, said Wednesday in Denver “if we didn’t include pro-life Democrats in the big tent of the party, we (Democrats) would be in the minority.”

Pro-lifers give Democrats their majority
She’s probably correct. The pro-life Democratic candidates who have proven able to win certain congressional districts in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and other states have given House Speaker Nancy Pelosi her majority.

Day sees signs of hope in Obama’s stance and in the platform adopted at this convention.

Day acknowledges that the Democratic platform has “a strong and unequivocal support for Roe v. Wade and that portion was strengthened.”

But she explained “in 2004 we didn’t have any say and we weren’t included in the discussion about what should be in the platform. This time the platform committee sought our opinion and that of other pro-life leaders.”

Slide show   Democrats in Denver Day two of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Barack Obama was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. more photos

The platform now includes language stressing the need for preventing unintended pregnancies and for supporting pregnant women. It mentions adoption as an option. “That’s very encouraging and it’s a step in the right direction,” Day said.

“I’m excited that Democrats at this convention for the first time are listening to those of us who believe that we have to champion the unborn child,” said Rep. Lincoln Davis, an anti-abortion Democrat from rural Tennessee.

Davis is the chief sponsor of the Pregnant Women Support Act, which would provide federal funding for efforts to encourage women with unplanned pregnancies to carry their babies to term rather than deciding to abort.

Recruiting pro-life Democrats
“The fact that the party is actively supporting and recruiting pro-life Democrats is also a big step in the right direction,” Day added, citing anti-abortion Democratic House candidates Kathy Dahlkemper, who is running in Pennsylvania against Rep. Phil English, and John Boccieri who is running for an open House seat in Ohio.

Both Boccieri and Dahlkemper are on the Democratic Party’s favored “Red to Blue” list of House hopefuls who’ll get maximum party financial backing.

A skeptic would say the Democratic leadership supports anti-abortion Democrats only when they’re needed to win a particular conservative-leaning district or state — and then once they’re elected, the leadership renders their anti-abortion views null.

After all, like Obama, most congressional Democrats are firmly in favor of Roe’s broad definition of abortion rights. That’s not likely to change.

But Day would prefer to look for evidence of progress where she can find it — as in the platform support for the concepts in Davis’s bill.

She’d like to see Obama support more federal funding of stem cell research that does not entail destruction of human embryos.

Day supports President Bush’s veto of the bill that would have allowed funding of stem cell research that does result in the destruction of human embryos, a bill Obama voted for.

Who will be on the Supreme Court?
If, as is likely, there’s a Supreme Court vacancy in the next two years, she’d like Obama to appoint to the court “a good pro-life Democrat.” But she isn’t expecting that to happen.

“If Obama is elected president, I want him to make sure he realizes that he is the president of the United States and that people have very different views on the abortion issue. And before he overturns things when it comes to that issue, to really think about it,” Day said.

Obama ought to “really represent the whole party and not just NARAL and Planned Parenthood.”

But the campaign finance numbers indicate that NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood and Emily's List are far more powerful in supporting Democratic candidates than Day’s tiny political action committee is.

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