Earlier this year, a group of pro-life Democrats met with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. The group, Democrats for Life, has many demands, including the removal of support of the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which withholds federal money from funding most abortions, but what the group wants most is an explicit statement from the DNC that declares the party’s disavowal of an abortion litmus test. Democrats for Life is not alone in this ambition. Prominent politicians from Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris to Nancy Pelosi and Jerry Brown have publicly rejected an abortion litmus test and the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Ray Luján has stated that the DCCC will support pro-life candidates in conservative districts. However, an abortion litmus test is not only acceptable but necessary for the Democratic Party to remain loyal to its ideals.
Pro-life Democrats say that an abortion litmus test would force pro-life liberals and progressives to to abandon their morality in order to be supported by the party that most closely aligns with their ideals. However, an abortion litmus test does not require pro-life politicians to personally terminate their pregnancies or even publicly endorse abortion. It requires that they vote against laws the restrict the right to choose. It does not require them to violate their own morality, rather it requires that they recognize and respect that others have a different morality. In the same way that legalized gay marriage does not require all churches to perform same-sex weddings, legalized abortion does not require all people do perform, support, or receive abortions. The only purpose and function of an abortion test is to ensure that abortion is legal and safe, not to enforce a uniform morality on the party. Those who would refuse an abortion are welcome, those who would refuse others that choice are not.
Publicly repudiating an abortion litmus test would not help elect more Democrats. Nearly 75% of Democrats say they agree with their party’s position on abortion. The Democrats who disagree haven’t left the party because of this disagreement. 57% of the broader American public thinks abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 40% who think it should be illegal. In addition, young people are more likely to support legalized abortion, as are women and racial minorities. These are faster growing constituencies compared to the population at large. The percentage of the population that identifies as pro-choice is also growing. However, most telling is the fact that most independents, 60%, think abortion should be legal, and that self-identified conservatives are much more likely to oppose legal abortion. Put simply, there just isn’t a large constituency for Democrats to gain by softening their opinion on abortion, but they do have their base, women, minorities, and the young, to lose. These are the constituencies that are the most likely to support legalized abortion. It simply doesn’t make sense politically to openly support pro-life candidates.
Even if it were politically expedient to reject an abortion litmus test, it would still be wrong to do so. In the modern world, the Democratic Party is the best political advocate that exists for the downtrodden and oppressed. Restricting women’s right to choose is part of this oppression. As Lindy West eloquently stated in her New York Times opinion piece, “to be anti-choice on a policy level is absolutely indefensible from an economic justice, racial justice, gender justice and human rights standpoint. And if the Democratic Party does not stand for any of those things, then what on earth is it?” For the Democratic Party to retain its moral authority it must stand up for one of the most fundamental of rights: choice. By affirming that it will not support candidates who ascribe to this vision, is furthering morality, not constricting it. The same is true for any number of social issues from gay marriage to racial discrimination. People can have validly different opinions on taxes, foreign policy, and education, but it is unacceptable to allow people hold varying opinions on a person’s humanity. This is what an abortion litmus test boils down to. Will the Democratic Party continue to stand up for human rights, or will it sacrifice its morality in the name of politics?
The Democratic Party has resisted stating that it has a litmus test on the issue of abortion, but it should not only endorse this policy, but embrace it. By implementing an abortion litmus test, the Democratic Party declare itself to be unabashedly pro-choice. There is no shame in this position, it is the moral, right one. An abortion litmus test should be worn as a badge of honor of a Democratic Party that declares itself the defender of human rights, without shame.
Liberal Talking Head 