DNC Chairman Tom Perez

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has sparked outrage across the nation by declaring that only Americans who are pro-abortion are welcome in the Democratic party.

Breitbart is reporting on the statement made by DNC chairman Tom Perez in which he demanded that all Democrats support abortion “rights.”

“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez said in a statement. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”

He continued: “At a time when women’s rights are under assault from the White House, the Republican Congress, and in states across the country, we must speak up for this principle as loudly as ever and with one voice.”

As Breitbart points out, this incredibly disingenuous statement made Perez the first chairman of the party to demand absolute ideological purity on abortion rights, promising to only back Democratic candidates who embrace a woman’s right to choose.

The dustup began last week when the DNC expressed support for Health Mello, a Democratic mayoral candidate in Omaha, Nebraska, who is prolife. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue issued a statement criticizing the DNC for the endorsement.

“The actions today by the DNC to embrace and support a candidate for office who will strip women — one of the most critical constituencies for the party — of our basic rights and freedom is not only disappointing, it is politically stupid,” Hogue said in a statement.

Of course, Mello never has, and never will, “strip women . . . of our basic rights and freedom” but Hogue has to use this kind of hysterical hyperbole in order to avoid stating the obvious – “Mello is pro-life so we’re against him” - which wouldn’t go over very well with a citizenry that is so closely divided on the issue of abortion.

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he believed the Democratic tent was big enough to welcome all comers and argued that a candidate in a Southern state shouldn’t be expected to have identical views as a candidate from a liberal coastal state.

Perez disagreed and fired off the offensive statement that didn’t even go over well within his own party. Even the notoriously pro-abortion “Catholic”, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I have served many years in Congress with members who have not shared my very positive – my family would say aggressive – position on promoting a woman’s right to choose.”

Kirsten Day, executive director of Democrats for Life and a Roman Catholic was understandably outraged by Perez’s statement and told The Blaze that the DNC chair was imposing a “litmus test” on potential Democratic candidates that will do little more than weaken the party in both the 2018 and 2020 elections.

“It’s pretty clear,” Day said of Perez’s position. “There’s no gray area here. He’s saying being for abortion is non-negotiable.”

She criticized Perez for his “poor leadership” and cited polls showing that as many as 28 percent of Democrats are prolife.

In response to Hogue’s statement that backing Mello was “stupid”, Day countered by arguing that pushing pro-life Democrats out of the party is “strategically stupid” because it allows Republicans to point to Democrats as being extremists on abortion.

Democrats “don’t have a bench right now,” Day noted. “We are a minority party if you look around the country. In these state and local races, Republicans control almost everything.

“If we’re going to be a big-tent party, we have to allow people to vote their conscience on this issue,” she said. “And we have not been very good at that.”

Day wants the party to get behind women who are facing unplanned pregnancies and do more to help them instead of sending them over to the nearest Planned Parenthood.

“Empowering women to carry their babies to term … that’s a way our party could really flourish and lead, instead of saying that killing babies is a fundamental right," Day told The Blaze. 

She also took issue with Perez’s Twitter page in which he describes himself as “fighting for the little guy.”

No he’s not, Day says, “He’s attacking the littlest.”

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (R) also weighed in on Perez’s Twitter description by tweeting out a photo of a tiny unborn baby.

Sasse tweeted: “@TomPerez Your profile says you fight for the little guy. Please check out this little fella -- special, isn't he? (He's 12 weeks old.)”

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