DNC Chair���s Order that Pro-Life Dems Go Elsewhere Causes Firestorm Inside of Party

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez may have gone a bridge too far with his recent commandment that the party is fully committed to abortion rights, and that, essentially, any pro-life Democrats are persona non grata and need to go elsewhere.

According to reporting by the National Catholic Register, a number of high-profile figures within the party, who are themselves hardly in lockstep with the radical abortion agenda, are particularly worried about the prospects of the party in the face of such a position, particularly at a time when signature Democratic victories around the country have been in short supply.

Stephen Schneck, the outgoing director of The Catholic University of America���s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, as well as a pro-life Democrat, pointedly said that Perez���s statement ���is perhaps the stupidest thing I���ve ever heard from a DNC chair. A lot of people in the Democratic Party have a problem with abortion.���

���Perez wants to shrink the party even further,��� he said. ���That���s just political suicide.���

Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., echoed Schneck���s concerns about what Perez���s stance means to the party at large, saying that it makes ���no sense��� to alienate up to one-fourth of the base. Lipinski goes on to tell the Register that he is personally familiar with former Democrats who dumped the party precisely because there is no ���seat at the table��� for those with pro-life views.

And no less a figure than Sen. Bernie Sanders has managed to cross swords with the party on the issue of abortion. The Register reports that Sanders, while himself not pro-life, sees the issue from a standpoint of political pragmatism, believing that excluding pro-life views within the party will prevent it from winning majorities. Sanders has recently campaigned with Heath Mello, a pro-life Democrat running for mayor of Omaha, Neb., and was sharply rebuked for doing so by Ilyse Hogue, president of the abortion advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Responding to the criticism, Sanders told NPR ���the truth is that in some conservative states there will be candidates that are popular candidates who may not agree with me on every issue. I understand it. That���s what politics is about.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large