LAST WEEK was pro-life awareness week at the University. First Right, the main pro-life organization on Grounds, decided to promote their cause throughout the week by hanging up banners and organizing an event held last Wednesday night. First Right hosted a speaker from a pro-life group that at first blush may seem paradoxical: Democrats for Life of America. First Right also invited the director of Black Americans for Life to provide some insight into the effects of abortion on the African-American community. This move, as well as the substance of the presentations, speaks volumes of the ability of the pro-life movement to cross ideological and racial boundaries.
First Right Vice President Christine Elliott described the purpose of the event in an e-mail response: "There are many reasons to be pro-life and diverse experiences behind the pro-life movement; we wanted to... suggest that abortion is everybody's issue, regardless of, in this case, political or racial differences."
It is likely that most University students, when viewing the fliers announcing the event, would think that pro-life Democrats would be a miniscule sliver of the population.
However, DFLA Executive Director Kristen Day went so far as to claim that a "silent majority" of Democrats are in fact pro-life. A recent John Zogby poll, which Day shared, indicates that a majority of Americans (53 percent to 36 percent) agree with the statement, "Abortion destroys a human life and is manslaughter." Broken down by party, 68 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of Democrats responded in the affirmative.
While Day's assertion may be overstated, it's interesting to note that a significant percentage of Democrats concurred with such a staunch pro-life declaration.
Day clarified the difference between pro-life Democrats and pro-life Republicans, focusing on the different ways in which each party attempts to redress social dilemmas in society, particularly those that some may associate with abortion (e.g. poverty). However, the common ground to protect the sanctity of life is a powerful and worthy union between the two parties. Most recently, on Feb. 26, 47 U.S. House Democrats voted in favor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which provided the majority needed to approve the bill.
In a display of sheer hypocrisy, the Democratic Party has virtually ignored the DFLA. The Democratic Party, supposedly the party of tolerance and change, systematically stifles the pro-life voice within its own party. The DNC Web site, which contains links to over 270 sites, lists seven pro-choice sites, including NARAL, NOW and Planned Parenthood. Democrats refuse to list the link for Democrats for Life. This action is inconsistent with the 2000 Democratic Party platform, which "stands behind the right of every woman to choose," but also claims the party to be one of "inclusion," regarding "this diversity of views as a source of strength, not as a sign of weakness."
The RNC site doesn't have any links to specific pro-life (e.g. National Right to Life) or pro-choice groups, but does provide a link to Log Cabin Republicans, which advocates for gay rights.
Many prominent pro-choice Republicans are heartily supported by the Republican Party. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former EPA director and New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman and former governor or Pennsylvania and current Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge all hold pro-choice views. So-called "blue dog" Democrats, on the other hand, are often ostracized by other Democrats for their pro-life stance. Sen. Zell Miller, D- Ga., for example, was criticized constantly for his pro-life position.
Day Gardner, director of BAL, spoke passionately about the "epidemic proportions" abortion has reached in the African-American community. Gardner pointed out that out of the 40 million babies aborted since the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973, 14 million were African-American, which amounts to three times more than white Americans.
Since that same time, less than a combined total of 8 million African Americans have died from all other causes (e.g. disease, accidents, etc.). Gardner suggested that this staggering statistic could be, in part, related to the decline of African Americans as the largest minority in the United States (surpassed by Hispanics).
Gardner, who lived through the 1960s civil rights movement, depicted the great struggle that African Americans overcame, and the retreat of these rights that are now denied to the unborn.
Gardner's argument that the pro-life cause is "essential" to preserving the stake African Americans have in society, not only in numbers, but in the right of equality and the right to life, as well as Day's contention of the pro-life stand crossing party lines demonstrate the authentic inclusion of such a central issue: the value of all human life.
Whitney Blake is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at wblake@cavalierdaily.com.
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