Dem leader says party can include abortion opponents

[brooklynite]

The Hill

The Democrats' tent is big enough to include anti-abortion lawmakers, the No. 2 House Democrat said Wednesday.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) emphasized that Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor of women's right to terminate a pregnancy. But there's no litmus test, he said, that would exclude those lawmakers who feel otherwise.

"Absolutely, there's room in our party," Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol.

"That doesn't mean we're not a pro-choice party — we are," he said, adding that this has been included in the Democratic platform.
"But that doesn't mean that ... either the Speaker or I believe that we ought to exclude people who have a different view," Hoyer said.

The comments came a day after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed a liberal Democrat, Marie Newman, who's launched a primary challenge against Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), an eight-term Catholic lawmaker with a long voting record opposing abortion rights.

[leftstreet]

1. Not this shit again

(I don't mean you)

I think a better strategy would be to 90s-reach-across-aisle and embrace users of plastic straws!

[handmade34]

2. uh, NO

[librechik]

3. Shut up, Steny.

[Celerity]

4. this is bloody brilliant, it will do absolute wonders in terms of GOTV from the base

[not_the_one]

5. They can state their PERSONAL anti-choice "opinion"

then they can state that they, as a member of the democratic party, wholeheartedly endorse the pro-choice stance of the democratic party.

Otherwise they will not receive my vote. In order to win we must become them? Unacceptable.

What's next? White nationalism, and accepting that democrats may have supported the KKK or the Nazis in the past.

Sorry, my tent is not that big.

I DON'T WANT "so-called" democrats in our party who think women are second class citizens and property.

This is just more of the "we MUST go to the center" argument, where the center has been moved repeatedly to the right, and still accepted as "centrist".

[maxsolomon]

6. Big tent, as long as they respect the Party's platform.

I have Catholic relatives that would vote Democrat but for Abortion. I told them they shouldn't have one then. They didn't think that was funny.

That said, go Newman!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. That's what I say.

If you don't believe in abortion, then don't have one.

[spanone]

7. Bullshit.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. For me, if there's a legacy incumbent who is antichoice and they survive primaries and elections,

I'm not going to lose a ton of sleep over it. But for new candidates, I don't compromise. My longtime rep took office in the 70s and was an antichoice Dem. I fuckin' voted for the dude! I loved him! But he died, and life moves on, and this is absolutely a litmus test I have for my support of candidates.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

9. Because if one thing is always expendable, it's women's reproductive freedom.

[Hekate]

10. Wrong, Steny. If they personally don't believe in it, then they have a choice to refrain...

But abortion is part of the complete range of women's necessary health care that needs to be available.

Yes, women's health care IS my litmus test.

[pnwmom]

12. It always has included some people who didn't agree on every issue, and we disparagingly

called them DINO's. And they were the reason we used to have majorities in both Houses, when we did, and that now we don't.

Would I rather we have Senate control, including a few who didn't believe in abortion? Or a minority who perfectly toed every line?

All of us should have learned by now that control of the Houses is paramount.

[Hekate]

13. True dat. I just want assurance that the Party platform includes women's health care...

...and that Dem politicians agree to uphold that. They can parse their personal feelings as they wish, teach their own daughters their religious strictures on birth control, all of that. Just agree that for the rest of us, the law is Roe vs Wade* and protect that law, because it is under assault all over the country. Texas is rapidly achieving Third World maternal mortality rates because of the wholesale closure of women's clinics.


* I know you know this, but for those who don't: Roe vs Wade was never "unrestricted" -- the first trimester was felt to be the woman's private business; the second trimester, medical consultation; and past that, full on discussion with doctor. In the second trimester it becomes more dangerous for the woman. Third trimester terminations are reserved for medical disasters.

[pnwmom]

15. I totally agree with that and demand it of my OWN representative. However,

if I lived in a red state and the only way a Democrat could be elected instead of a Republican is to not be pro-choice, I would prefer a Dem anti-abortion person to a Rethug anti-abortion AND anti-everything else person.

[NCLefty]

14. Is there any evidence to support this?

Elected representatives, or something? Maybe in conservative areas? I truly don't know.