When the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced last week that they’d open funding to anti-choice candidates, uterus-bearers everywhere shook their heads.
We had one party — just one that we could at least half count on to not forget about us when some corrupt legislation was introduced to require a rapist’s sign-off on a victim’s abortion, or to allow companies to withhold insurance coverage for birth control. Now what?
Now we have a party that’s established an extreme corporate brand, that isn’t resonating with the masses, that refuses to address its internal problems by constantly deflecting blame to Republicans, and that is plotting a corrective course that starts with…alienating more middle class people?
It’s like they’re not even trying.
Sure, in some ways, it might be easier politics. The anti-choice movement and rhetoric has so effectively spread that there are plenty of people left who still think abortion is a dangerous procedure that tortures and kills unborn children. And these people live in counties overwhelmingly lost by our politicians in blue. But, are we really trying to cater to the misinformed beliefs of a minority population?
Scary falsehoods may be easier to spread than rational truths, but the reality is nearly 100 percent of abortions result in zero major medical problems, and a fetus can’t feel pain until after the 26th week, when it’s viable and illegal to abort anyway.
An even starker reality for Democrats is that, despite that vocal minority of anti-choice groups and voters, most Americans believe that bodily autonomy is the single most basic and vital human right, necessary in maintaining a Democracy.
Still, top Democrats, including DCCC Chairman Ben R. Luján, and the Democratic National Convention’s (DNC) Chair and Deputy Chair, Tom Perez and Keith Ellison, seem to be wavering on what the 2016 Democratic platform had established, which was not only complete support for safe and legal abortion, but also complete opposition to the Hyde Amendment, created to prohibit federal funding for abortions.
“There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates,” Luján said in an interview with The Hill, adding that candidates should fit the district they represent.
After some well-deserved internet backlash, Luján took to Facebook to clarify his stance.
“Democrats have a lot of work ahead of us if we want to take the House back in 2018. As you are aware, Republicans control both chambers in the Congress,” he said. “We will have to win very tough, diverse, swing Republican held districts across the country. Ultimately, the people in districts across the country will determine who will take on the Republican incumbent.”
READ: We’re losing, and we think the step to winning is allowing our candidates to forget the most basic and vital human right of bodily autonomy.
Out of left field comes this answer to winning more elections when people have been saying all along exactly what they want in a representative.
Democrats, you want more votes?
Stop halting single-payer healthcare reform as a favor for wealthy donors. Stop sabotaging efforts to raise the minimum wage in local municipalities.
Stop sacrificing the rights of people to navigate their own reproductive healthcare in hopes of seeming moderate to misguided and uneducated anti-choicers. Fix your party, and leave our uteri out of it.