The Democratic Party Platform is Pro-Choice.
From the party platform document (
http://s3.amazonaws.com/apache.3cdn.net/8a... ):
Choice
The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right
to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all
efforts to weaken or undermine that right.
The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family
planning services and age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed
choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education
help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for
abortions.
The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring
access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills,
income support, and caring adoption programs.
Those Democrats who voted for such an amendment need to reevaluate their party status.
This amendment is clearly discriminatory, anti-choice, anti-woman and very
anti-Democratic. We must pressure our Senators to have it stripped in conference. However, I fear that Reid will include such language in his merged bill. Remember, he has not yet merged or revealed anything about the merged SHELP/Finance bill. If we had as many Democrats in the Congress vote for this amendment, I believe there will be similar numbers in the Senate. If Ted Kennedy were still alive, I wonder if he would have supported such an amendment to get the bill passed. It will be interesting to see what Sen. Kerry does. Sen. Kennedy was and Sen. Kerry is Catholic. Kerry has always said personal beliefs do not need to be legislated. I hope he stands by that position.
As such, much pressure needs to be put on Reid and assuming it does not end up in the merged bill, we must pressure our Senators to not support such a bill and have it stripped in conference.
