Any Pro-Life Democrats? Wasserman Schultz and Planned Parenthood

What kind of a people will we be?

The rhetoric of abortion advocacy contains a truth that abortion advocates often fail to perceive. Abortion is a question of choice. It is a choice faced by all the citizens of this free society. And the choice we make, deliberatively and democratically, will do much to answer two questions: What kind of a people are we? What kind of a people will we be?

P>FORT LAUDERDALE, FL. (Catholic Online) - Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was named by President Barack Obama to Chair the National Democratic party. She took over for the former Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine claimed to be "Pro-Life", though his record and his statements completely undermine the claim.

Tim Kaine's leadership of the Democratic Party enabled the Party to at least appear to still be open to Pro-Life people. With the appointment of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the façade is over. She has earned the effusive praise of none other Cecile Richards, the head of the evil organization called Planned Parenthood. Her record and her rhetoric are clear.

On Friday, August 19, 2011, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz was a speaker at a rally for Planned Parenthood in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She tweeted and posted to facebook to proudly let her fans know that she participated. When I read of this open endorsement of an organization which leads the pack in abortions, I thought back on the days when there really were consistent "liberals" and truly "Pro-Life" Democrats.

I am sure this article will generate a response from some of the sincere members of groups such as "Democrats for Life" who will insist there still are Pro-Life Democrats. Sadly, the fight over the Obama Administration's Health Care disabused me of much hope that this is still the case. I would welcome being proven wrong.

However, it has not always been like this. A New York Times editorial written by Ross Douthat on August 30, 2009, the week Eunice Kennedy Shriver died, was entitled "A Different Kind of Liberal."  It drew comparisons and contrasts between Ted Kennedy, who died the same month, and his sister, Eunice Shriver. He noted "Liberalism's most important legislator probably merited a more extended send-off than his sister. But there's a sense in which his life's work and Eunice's deserve to be remembered together - for what their legacies had in common, and for what ultimately separated them."

He continued "What separated them was abortion. Along with her husband, Sargent Shriver, Eunice belonged to America's dwindling population of outspoken pro-life liberals. Like her church, she saw continuity, rather than a contradiction, between championing the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed and protecting unborn human life.

"Her brother took a different path. Not at first: In 1971, in a letter to a voter that abortion opponents would have many opportunities to quote, he declared that "wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized - the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old."

I grew up in Massachusetts during the heyday of this brand of Pro-Life liberalism. I actually remember consistent liberals. Sadly they are now nearly extinct. The Shriver's stood in the proud tradition of the last truly great Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States; the late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey. He was a great champion of all the poor and a candidate whom I proudly supported in his bid for the White House.

He was censored at the National Democratic Convention when the forces of death on demand in the name of "choice" took over that once great Party. Do not believe the historical revisionists who now attempt to say that was not the case. It was! However, he and the Shriver's heard the cries of all of the poor, including those whom Mother Teresa rightly called "the poorest of the poor", children living in the first home of the whole human race who have no voice but our own.

Under the leadership of the late Governor Casey, a full-page advertisement appeared in the New York Times during the Democratic Convention in July 1992 called "A New Compact of Care: Caring about Women, Caring for the Unborn." Both Eunice and Sargent Shriver signed this document. Now those signatories were the real McCoy, pro-Life Democrats and Pro-Life Liberals. Here is a small excerpt:
 
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Beyond the False Dichotomy: A New Compact of Care

"The advocates of abortion on demand falsely assume two things: that women must suffer if the lives of unborn children are legally protected; and that women can only attain equality by having the legal option of destroying their innocent offspring in the womb. The cynicism of these assumptions reflects a terrible failure of moral imagination and social responsibility and an appalling lack of respect for women.

"We propose a new understanding, one that does not pit mother against child. To establish justice and to promote the general welfare, America does not need the abortion license. What America needs are policies that responsibly protect and advance the interest of mothers and their children, both before and after birth.

"Such policies would provide maximum feasible legal protection for the unborn and maximum feasible care and support for pregnant women, mothers, and children.... a public policy that more adequately expresses the traditions and convictions of the American people will do more than restore legal protection to the unborn.

"It will take seriously the needs of women whose social or economic circumstances might tempt them to seek the abortion "solution." It will recognize our shared responsibility, in public and private settings, to make realistic alternatives to abortion available to such women.

"It will support women in caring for the children they choose to raise themselves, and it will help them find homes for those they cannot raise. It will work to provide a decent life for mother and child before and after birth.

"In sum, we can and we must adopt solutions that reflect the dignity and worth of every human being and that embody understanding of the community's shared responsibility for creating policies that are truly pro-woman and pro-child. What we seek are communities and policies that help women to deal with crisis pregnancies by eliminating the crisis, not the child...

Common Choices, Common Destiny

"The rhetoric of abortion advocacy contains a truth that abortion advocates often fail to perceive. Abortion is a question of choice. The "choice," though, is not one faced by isolated women exercising private rights. It is a choice faced by all the citizens of this free society. And the choice we make, deliberatively and democratically, will do much to answer two questions: What kind of a people are we? What kind of a people will we be?

"If we abandon the principle of respect for human life by making the value of a life depend on whether someone else thinks that life is worthy or wanted, we will become one sort of people. But there is a better way. We can choose to reaffirm our respect for human life. We can choose to extend once again the mantle of protection to all members of the human family, including the unborn. We can choose to provide effective care of mothers and children. And if we make those choices, America will experience a new birth of freedom, bringing with it a renewed spirit of community, compassion, and caring."

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On January 22, 2012 our Nation will again mark an infamous anniversary, the Supreme Court's "legalization" of the taking of innocent human life in the womb through its decisions in Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton. Sadly, the current President, the leader of the Democratic Party, will go down in history as the President who expanded abortion on demand more than any of his predecessors.

These words quoted above from the Compact for Care need to be read by all who are dedicated to building a new culture of life and civilization of love. A once proud political party which  proclaimed that its solidarity with all of the poor included our first neighbors in the womb, has been hijacked by the purveyors of the Culture of death and its counterfeit notion of freedom as a raw power over those who are weaker or whose voice cannot be heard. 

After what happened to Governor Robert Casey at the Convention, I left the Democratic Party. I know that I have heard the same story from many, many others. That is not to say I am all that happy with the Republican Party. However, at least some of its candidates both talk the talk and walk the walk.

The child in the first home of the whole human race is our neighbor. It is always and everywhere wrong to kill our innocent neighbor. Science has confirmed what the Natural law has written on our conscience; there is no "Right" to take innocent human life at any age or stage.

No-one can claim to care for the poor when they fail to hear the cry of these children. No Political party which claims to champion human rights can be anything but Pro-life. Abortion is the great sin against human solidarity and its embrace by the liberal community has undermined its moral claim to care about the poor.

I would still like to see genuinely Pro-Life people in both parties. So, I believe it is time to shake them both up. Maybe this article will help.

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