Ex-Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski to speak at March for Life

“Clearly, if all that effort was expended by the other side to get me out of Congress, they feared my pro-life voice in the Democratic Party, no two ways about it,” Lipinski said.

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The former lawmaker, who represented Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District for 16 years, has previously spoken at the annual anti-abortion march. The March for Life Education and Defense Fund, which organizes the event, is a nonpartisan organization, but Republican speakers became more frequent as the parties drifted further apart on abortion. Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence addressed the gathering in recent years, prompting some criticism the event was becoming too partisan. Meanwhile, anti-abortion Democrats in Congress grew rarer.

This year’s event features fewer elected officials, but Republican Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Julia Letlow of Louisiana are on the list of speakers.

While in Congress, Lipinski — who describes himself as an anti-abortion, pro-union, blue-collar Democrat — voted with his party most of the time. But his position on abortion, he said, prompted his own party to target him.

“They came after me in the Democratic primary because they want it to silence all pro-life Democratic voices,” Lipinski said. “And despite my loss, I haven’t been silenced. In pro-life, Democrats aren’t going to be silenced.”

Lipinski said anti-abortion lawmakers shouldn’t just be in Republican ranks.

“We need the pro-life movement to not be a partisan issue,” he said. “So I want to encourage pro-life Democrats to keep at it and sort of emphasize the importance of this not becoming just a partisan issue because it hurts the pro-life movement.”

Lipinski said he would not back down from his position, which he argued is supported by science and should be law.

“Hopefully, the Supreme Court this year will give us an opportunity for the first time in almost 50 years,” he said. “We’ll give the people the opportunity to protect babies in the womb. And hopefully, this will be the last time we will have to march in January, but it does not mean that it will be the end. We’re going to keep marching and keep working because it’s only the beginning. It’s only a first step. If we can get rid of Roe, there’s a lot more work to be done until all babies and all women are protected under the law.”

Reports in the fall indicated Lipinski, whose loss to Newman was narrow, may be weighing another bid for Congress. Asked if he has any plans for an attempt at a political comeback, Lipinski stayed mum but said, “I’ve been making the case for years that the party needs to at least be open to pro-life Democrats.”

“The party is just, it’s hurting itself,” Lipinski said. “It doesn’t make any sense. If they’re just looking at it politically, and I’ve gone through recently, and it looked at the sort of evolution of the Democratic Party platform through the years on abortion — you know, it used to be [that] the Democratic Party recognized that there are differing views, and it took the position that it opposed overturning Roe v. Wade, but the platform said that we understand that people have different views on this and essentially said we respect that. That’s the position I think the Democratic Party should get back to at least, or else the party could, you know, it just politically is really hurting itself.”

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Rep. Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-life Caucus, told the Washington Examiner he hopes Democrats make room in their rank and file for lawmakers like Lipinski, who used to be a caucus member.

“The belief was in the 60s and the 70s, the Democrats were for the little guy, for the disenfranchised,” the New Jersey Republican said. “And that has changed, especially as it relates to this issue of abortion.”