By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Two former pro-abortion leaders wrote on op-ed in the New York Times this weekend warning the Democratic party to either defend abortion or risk an inter-party revolt.
According to a report by LifeNews.com, former NARAL president Kate Michelman and the former president of Catholics for a Free Choice Frances Kissling were responding to the passage of Rep. Bart Stupak’s amendment to the House health care bill that stripped the legislation of all abortion funding. Although it is widely believed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed the vote only to secure passage of the overall bill, and plans to remove the amendment later, the move has sparked angry indignation from pro-abortion groups across the country.
“The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success,” wrote Michelman and Kissling in the Times this weekend. “In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes.”
That Senate Democrats are poised to allow similar anti-abortion language in their bill “simply underscores the degree of the damage that has been done,” they say.
“This, then, is where we stand as party leaders celebrate passage of the House bill. When it comes to abortion, they seem to think all positions are of equal value so long as the party maintains a majority.
“But the party will eventually reap what it has sown. If Democrats do not commit themselves to defeating the amendment, then they will face an uncompromising effort by Democratic women to defeat them, regardless of the cost to the party’s precious majority,” they say.
Like many other abortion proponents, Michelman and Kissling are not convinced by promises to remove the amendment later in the legislative process.
“They say the tradeoff was necessary to advance the right to guaranteed health care. They say they will fight another day for a woman’s right to choose,” they write. “Perhaps.”
Surprisingly, Michelman and Kissling also attack the thoroughly pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
“Democrats were told to stop talking about abortion as a moral and legal right and to focus instead on comforting language about reducing the number of abortions. In this regard, President Obama was right on message when he declared in his health care speech to Congress in September that “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” — as if this happened to be a good and moral thing,” they write.
They conclude their op-ed by saying that the victims of the Democrats’ folly will be the millions of women “who once could count on the Democratic Party to protect them from those who would sacrifice their rights for political gains.”
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