Desperate to Win, Democrats Decide They'll Let Pro-Life Candidates Run on Their Ticket

By Andrea Ruth | 2:21 PM on July 31, 2017

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Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., center, thanks House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, after she announced he will take over as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., left, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014.

The Democratic Party Chairman, Rep. Ben Luján (D – N. Mex.), told The Hill that there will be no abortion rights litmus test to run on the Democrat ticket in 2018. Opening the Democratic wing up to gaining pro-life voters in currently Republican-held districts.

“There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates,” said Luján, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman. “As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America.”

Of course, this will be a hard pill to swallow for their base, which holds the killing of the unborn as the be all and end all of human rights: The right to kill your child, which they would also argue belongs to the state and not to his or her parents.

“Throwing weight behind anti-choice candidates is bad politics that will lead to worse policy,” said Mitchell Stille, who oversees campaigns for NARAL Pro-Choice America. “The idea that jettisoning this issue wins elections for Democrats is folly contradicted by all available data.”

To be sure, the Democrats deciding to allow pro-life candidates to run on their ticket isn’t an indication that they are coming around to the fact that an unborn human being is a person. Nope. It’s simply a carefully considered plan to win seats and gain back their power.

“To pick up 24 [seats] and get to 218, that is the job. We’ll need a broad coalition to get that done,” Luján said. “We are going to need all of that, we have to be a big family in order to win the House back.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have both argued against party litmus tests, saying there’s room for people with different opinions on abortion. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another influential voice, has echoed that argument.

The Democrats tried to straddle the pro-life/pro-abortion line in the 1980’s and 1990’s but it was clearly an issue that could not coexist under one party. The fact is that those who believe the unborn have a right to their life is irreconcilable with the pro-abortion ideology that permeates the Democratic Party. They are attempting to re-up this already tried schtick, but it’s simply a foolhardy and empty gesture due to the two sides being incompatible at the most basic level.