As an evangelical Democrat, I am perfectly aware of how for the past couple decades, the GOP successfully employed millions of evangelical voters as its foot soldiers by capturing the ultimate moral high ground, the sanctity of life. Some Democrats have tried to respond by bringing the GOP down, pointing out that the military hawkish, pro-death penalty party is inconsistent in its pro-life ethics. While this may be true, I feel strongly that the Democrats also have to start climbing up and capture the moral high ground for themselves.
Rather than simply defending from the pro-life rhetoric of the GOP, it's time the Democrats address the concern of the evangelicals and majority of Americans who are morally appalled by high rate of abortion in the nation, promoting compassionate, enforceable ways to reduce abortion.
If the Democratic Party is pro-choice and anti-abortion, than it should start following its own platform. Typical pro-life evangelicals would protest that a woman deserves a better choice than abortion. The Democratic Party should acknowledge that many women in America have abortion not because of choice, but because there is no other viable choice. Even Hillary Clinton said abortion is "sad, even a tragic choice, for many, many women." The Democratic Party, the party of women's rights, should provide better alternatives for desperate women who feel they have no other choice but abortion. The fact that one in five pregnancies in America end through abortion is a social scandal in this nation. Rather than engaging in the woman vs. fetus debate with the GOP, the Democratic Party should pledge to promote all necessary resources and counseling to support woman who want to give birth to their child, thus ensuring that an abortion is never necessary for American women.
Should abortion be criminalized? By pledging to ban abortion, the GOP has used this moral issue as a political tool to mobilize the evangelical (and even Catholic) voters. Rather than engaging in debate with the GOP on the legitimacy of third trimester abortion (opposed by most Americans), the Democrats should "de-federalize" this issue all together, standing firm that restricting abortion is an issue for the states, not federal government. By granting permission to the states that would impose more restrictive abortion laws (Louisiana) while defending the rights of the states that would be more lenient (New Jersey), the Democrats can take this political weapon away from the GOP.
The pro-life voters, given the opportunity to restrict abortions at state levels, would feel less need to take their stand at the federal level. On the other hand, the pro-choice Americans (about half the population), when they realize that abortion would become a legislative, rather than judicial issue, would feel more obliged to actively lobby for their position, pressuring the state legislatures to allow exceptions for abortion in certain critical cases (rape, incest, health, etc.).
Finally, I believe Democrats shouldn't be repelled by a pro-life movement, but rather embrace it. In fact, if the GOP wants to be a "Coercively Conservative Pro-life Party" than we should be the "Persuasively Progressive Pro-life Party". If the GOP engages in was to stop women from having an abortion, the Democrats should engage in how to persuade women to choose life. The party of health care should financially support the health of a pregnant mother. The party of education should support abstinence- emphasized sex education in schools. The party of human rights should provide ultra sonograms for hospitals and persuade woman to observe the sanctity of a life developing inside her.
And finally, the party of choice should encourage the woman with an unwanted pregnancy to choose adoption over the abortion. As James Carville said, "An ideal number of abortions is zero." Setting aside intense debate on the legality of abortion, the Democrats should see that abortion is rarely in the best interest of a woman, her child, and society in general. Leaving the states to decide their own abortion laws, the National Democratic Party should imitate a moral, progressive approach to promote compassion for the life of the fetus and dramatically reduce the woman's need for abortion, ensuring that "every child would be born a wanted child".
Jong Eun Lee is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.
