Americans, Democrats included, have not followed the leaders of the Democratic Party on their quest to sanctify abortion rights. Just a few decades ago, it was not at all clear that one party or the other was the party of life or of abortion rights. Congressional freshman firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez soon thereafter declared that opposition to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for most abortions, is a "base level where all candidates need to be." No candidates have dared to disagree.īut while the current party alignment of pro-choice Democrats and pro-life Republicans seems solid, it has not been that way for long. On the related issue of public funding for abortions, early frontrunner Joe Biden made news when he flipped and flopped and flipped again. With only a few exceptions - Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana being the most notable - the vast majority of Democratic office holders are solidly on board the abortion bandwagon. While that position may be supported by the vast majority of Americans, and even a majority of Democrats, it is an outlier among the leadership of the party.
Only Tulsi Gabbard has articulated any checks on abortion rights from the debate stage in October, she tepidly noted her opposition to some third-trimester abortions. Kirsten Gillibrand declared in May 2019 that the Democratic Party should "be 100 percent pro-choice, and it should be nonnegotiable." She eventually left the presidential race not because her abortion absolutism was too radical but because it was too common.Ĭory Booker is promising a "White House Office of Reproductive Freedom" and calls abortion rights "sacrosanct." At a June debate, Elizabeth Warren, when asked directly by NBC's Lester Holt if she would put "any limits on abortion," declined to identify a single one. DAGA trumpeted this explicit litmus test as "the first-of-its-kind for any Democratic campaign committee," but it seems unlikely to be the last. In November, the Democratic Attorneys General Association announced it was requiring support for abortion rights or it would not endorse candidates or provide them financial assistance. There is plenty of evidence to back up that assertion. One could argue that there is not a pro-life lane in the Democratic Party anymore. But no one is jostling for the pro-life lane. Thus, there is tough competition for the progressive lane, the moderate lane, the black lane, and the woman lane. As more than a dozen Democrats jockey for their party's nomination, the conventional wisdom is that there are only a few political "lanes," and each important sub-segment of the electorate will eventually coalesce around a chosen candidate.