ChristiansUnite Forums

Pro-Life Democrats Moving on Congressional and International Agenda

(AgapePress) - Pro-life Democrats plan to test the waters in the 110th Congress by bringing up a measure for a vote at the start of the new session. The move, part of their "95-10" initiative to reduce the abortion rate by 95 percent in ten years, suggests a new attitude that assumes the new Democratic Party leadership is willing to include pro-life priorities in the House agenda.

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, says because of several newly elected pro-life Democratic congressmen and at least one senator, she believes future U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ready to acknowledge that the public wants pro-life issues included in the party priorities.

"It's encouraging for me to see the Democratic Party supporting pro-life Democrats as with Bob Casey, Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth," Day observes. She adds, hopefully, "I think that the new Speaker wants to govern from the middle."

The Democrats for Life spokeswoman says pro-life Democrats do not plan to waste any time testing their assumption that their goals will find a place in the majority party's agenda. "Our priority for next year," she notes, "is passing the Pregnant Women's Support Act. It has bipartisan support and addresses the abortion issue by helping pregnant women."

The bipartisan bill from Democratic Tennessee Congressman Lincoln Davis features 14 proposals. These include expanding health coverage for pregnant women and unborn children through state programs and providing grants that assist with childcare so new mothers can continue their college education.

Amnesty International Cautioned Against Supporting Pro-Abortion Proposal
Meanwhile, pro-lifers in Congress are taking measures to address sanctity-of-life issues on an international scale by going on record as opposing a proposal to expand the mandate of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights advocacy group, to include supporting access to abortion under certain circumstances, such as in cases involving sexual violence. Recently, 73 members of the Pro-Life Congressional Caucus sent a letter to the executive director of the organization, urging it not to adopt this pro-abortion position.

At its August meeting in Mexico next year, Amnesty International is expected to address the proposal and to vote on the organization's official position on abortion, a position which has been neutral to date. However, the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus acknowledges that abortion-rights advocates have for several years put pressure on Amnesty International to change that stance, and is moving to voice its pro-life concerns.

Since 1961, Day points out, Amnesty International has been known as a strong and vocal defender of human rights and the oppressed. And, she notes, the advocacy group has often worked closely with religious and faith-based organizations in these efforts.

Now, in light of this pro-abortion proposal, the Democrats for Life spokeswoman is joining congressional pro-lifers in warning the international rights organization that a decision in favor of "abortion rights" could undermine all of the "good works" Amnesty is doing throughout the world. She and other pro-lifers are urging the international group's leaders and constituents to recognize what a mistake it would be to give in to pro-abortion pressure.

"Their proposal that they might consider including abortion as a human right, we all felt, was a big error and against what they stand for," Day says, "and we were all calling on Amnesty International to remain neutral on the abortion issue."

According to Associated Press reports, a small but growing band of pro-life campaigners, religious groups, and Roman Catholic clerics are also voicing strong opposition to the pro-abortion proposal, including some who have backed Amnesty's activities in the past. Among these pro-life critics of the measure, some are saying the Nobel Prize-winning human rights group is drifting away from its established principles of unbiased advocacy.