When it comes to abortion, Democratic candidates are out of touch with America.
They made this much clear at the Democratic debate on Tuesday night. Barring Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, none of the presidential candidates accurately represented either the opposition or even the abortion positions of their own party. The thing is, they get away with it.
California Sen. Kamala Harris made Planned Parenthood happy by bringing up abortion almost first thing, something the abortion provider had been lobbying candidates to do. A moderator asked Harris for her response to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ spiel on healthcare, and instead of tackling “Medicare for all” she pivoted to abortion, delivering one of the first applause lines of the night.
“This is the sixth debate we have had in this presidential cycle and not nearly one word, with all of these discussions about healthcare, on women’s access to reproductive healthcare, which is under full-on attack in America today,” she said. Harris insisted that “women will die” without abortion access, neglecting to mention that unborn women will die because of it.
Not to lose out on his own share of feminist clout, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker jumped in, proclaiming that “women should not be the only ones taking up this cause and this fight.” Abortion access is important because “women are people,” Booker affirmed, attacking a straw man so flimsy that even the senator polling at 2% imagined he could eke out some prestige by toppling it.
When the moderators brought up abortion later, most candidates were quick to announce that they’d “codify Roe v. Wade.” While she joined other candidates in supporting the affirmation of the Supreme Court decision, Gabbard was the only one of them with a unique, and realistic, perspective.
“This is often one of the most difficult decisions that a woman will ever have to make, and it’s unfortunate to see how in this country it has for so long been used as a divisive political weapon,” she said. “I agree with Hillary Clinton on one thing, disagree with her on many others, but when she said abortion should be safe, legal, and rare, I think she’s correct.”
“Safe, legal, and rare” hasn’t been in vogue since 1996, but Gabbard earned an unlikely ally for her use of the mantra. After Gabbard spoke, former Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen, who was ousted from the organization for not being politically radical enough, tweeted her support for the congresswoman’s rhetoric.
Wen wrote that she appreciates how Gabbard “brought up the third rail for Democrats: that abortion should be ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ We should reduce the need for abortions by investing in prevention.”
That puts Wen on the centrist side of the radical pro-abortion lobby. Echoing the broader party line, one pro-choice activist complained that Wen’s framing was “stigmatizing.” The difference between Wen and Gabbard’s perspective and that of the Democratic establishment reveals all you need to know about how Democratic leadership has come to break from its liberal constituency.
Rather than proclaiming #ShoutYourAbortion such as the most vocal activists on Twitter, many Democrats still prefer that abortion become safe, legal, and rare. Just 31% of Democrats believe abortion should be legal in all circumstances, according to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll.
Harris says anti-abortion legislation is the fault of “state legislators who are outdated and out of touch, mostly men who are telling women what to do with their bodies.”
On abortion, though, it’s not the Republican legislators who are out of touch. It’s the Democratic Party, whose commitment to preserving abortion has followed a leftward lurch which stigmatizes conservatives and alienates the liberals it’s supposed to represent.
