Democratic Party Recruiting Anti-Abortion Candidates Says NOW

[Itsthetruth]

Tell Democratic Leaders that Moving to the Right is the Wrong Strategy

National Organization for Women
NOW Current Political Action Alert

We have very disturbing news to report—some Democratic leaders are actively recruiting anti-abortion candidates and forcing out pro-choice Democrats!

Democratic leaders recently forced winning pro-choice candidate Barbara Hafer out of the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate race against extremist Republican incumbent Rick Santorum, so they could run an anti-abortion Democrat—the same losing tactic they used against Santorum in 2000. Speak out!

Top Democrats recruited Robert P. Casey Jr., a staunch abortion opponent in the mold of his father, the late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey Sr. You may recognize his name from the 1992 Supreme Court case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood, in which the senior Casey defended Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act, which was so extreme that the Supreme Court struck it down.

Don't mistake this for a random act—it is a calculated effort by party leaders to build a so-called "bigger tent" at the expense of women's rights. It almost happened in Rhode Island as well, where Schumer and national Democratic leaders tried to recruit an anti-abortion candidate to run against a pro-choice candidate in the party's Senate primary and against a pro-choice Republican Senator in the general election. Thanks to the strong and vocal opposition of Rhode Island NOW activists, the anti-choice candidate decided to stay in his safe house seat, and every remaining potential candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination now professes his commitment to reproductive rights.

For equality,

Kim Gandy, National Organization for Women PAC
Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority PAC
Martha Burk
Dolores Huerta
Marie Wilson
Faye Wattleton
Gloria Steinem

You can read the entire statement and NOW's appeal for action at:

http://www.nowpacs.org/alerts/democrats-letter-03-05.html

[sasquatch]

1. It doesn't really matter though IMO

The republicans have been in charge for a long time and they have yet to make it illegal.

[MichiganVote]

2. I believe you are seriously mistaken

[dsc]

3. They have no one to blame but themselves

WE gave in to them in RI and what did they do, endorsed Chaffee. Why should we give in now, when Hafer was a Republican until 2003 (she endorsed Santorum twice so how much can she honestly care about being pro choice?)

[AX10]

4. I support Jim Langevin for Rhode Island Senate against...

Lincoln Chaffee. Langevin opposes abortion but he WILL do EVERYTHING possible to defeat right wing/extremist judges. Langevin is an easy win for us in a very blue State, and we need to put those resources into places such as Tennessee, Montana, and Ohio where there are weak Repugs who we can defeat.

Jim Langevin is a good man and I emails Charles Schumer (DSCC chair) and asked him to get Langevin back into the race.

:kick:

:dem:

[liberaliraqvet26]

5. Chaffee voted for....

Bill Frist for Majority Leader, who is in bed with Dobson. NOW and NORAL need to use some common sense and look at the big picture.

[Rowdyboy]

6. What idiocy! One popularly elected pro-life Democrat DARES run

for office and NOW has its knickers in a knot. Totally ridiculous. If they were rational, they'd endorse Pennachio in the primary and Casey in the general.

One damn officeholder dares to have a single unpopular opinion and its DOOM, I TELL YOU DOOM!!!

And the comparison to Chaffee is spot-on. Those fools at NARAL have endorsed the creep Chaffee, knowing that he votes with their enemies on almost EVERY issue but abortion, including fanatic rightwing judges. What short-sided ideologues.

[Inland]

7. Yeah, I guess.

It's one guy, who can beat Santorum. That means a wash on abortion and plus on everything else.

But I wouldn't want to see a habit made out of it.

[JDPriestly]

8. The issue is privacy,

not abortion. O'Connor made that very clear in the Casey decision. Dean has explained that most people agree with us when it comes to the privacy issue. Abortion is a very personal decision. Many people who are "pro-choice" are anti-abortion. Religions and individuals disagree on when life begins -- so there is also a freedom of religion issue here. Unless there is some scientific discovery that determines for once and for all precisely when what we can agree is human life begins, we have to each have the right to make that decision for ourselves, and the only issue that matters is the privacy of a person to follow their own conviction on this issue that is important now.