Democrat Party Wants Taxpayer Funded Abortions

NORTH CAROLINA – The 2012 Democrat Party officially adopted its most radical position on abortion on Tuesday. According to a copy of the party platform, which was released online, “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay.”

That phrase, “regardless of ability to pay,” is an obvious endorsement of taxpayer-funded abortions, a policy that President Obama personally advocates. Obama wants Medicaid to directly pay for elective abortions, and his signature health care bill will allow beneficiaries to use federal subsidies to purchase health care plans that cover elective abortions.

Polls that have queried about public funded abortions have repeatedly shown that voters oppose it. According to a 2009 Quinnipiac poll, 72 percent of voters oppose public funding of abortion and 23 percent support it. Public funding of abortion is as unpopular as banning abortion in the case of rape. The media has paid little attention to this new plank in the Democrat’s platform but has been intensely focused on the idea of banning abortion in the case of rape, a move neither presidential candidate supports.

The 2012 Democrat party also endorses an unrestricted right to abortion-on-demand. According to the platform, on the issue of abortion “there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way.”

In 2003, Obama was asked if he was pro-choice on abortion “in all situations including the late-term thing.” Obama replied: “I’m pro-choice.” As an Illinois state senator, Obama opposed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. The problem, in Obama’s own words, was that in some cases the “fetus, or child — however you want to describe it” was “not just coming out limp and dead.” Supporters of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act wanted to require doctors to provide medical care to these infants, while Obama wanted to leave it up to the discretion of the abortionist to determine whether these infants had a reasonable chance of sustained life.

In 1992, Bill Clinton tried to soften the party’s image on abortion by expressing his desire to make abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” “In 2000, the Democratic platform said the party’s goal was ‘to make abortion less necessary and more rare,'” Jeff Jacoby wrote in the Boston Globe last week. “The 2004 platform declared, ‘Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.’ But even calling for abortion to be ‘rare’ is now too much for the Democrats’ platform committee, which deleted the word in 2008.” The word “rare” did not make a comeback in 2012.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, is a committee member. Or that the president of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, was asked to address the Democrat convention in North Carolina.