{"id":2997,"date":"2008-08-14T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-14T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html"},"modified":"2008-08-14T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-14T09:05:00","slug":"walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html","title":{"rendered":"Walking the plank: the Democrats and abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I looked over the proposed new language about abortion in the Democratic party platform, I shrugged. That’s it<\/i>? Is that the best they could do? The plank still<\/i> “strongly and unequivocally” endorses Roe v. Wade and the right to a “safe, legal” abortion. The rest, it seems to me, is window dressing. <\/p>\n

But others found a lot to like, as various reports have indicated. Some of the swooning can be read here<\/a>: <\/p>\n

<\/a>The Democratic Party remains staunchly behind a woman\u2019s right to choose an abortion.<\/p>\n

But the platform statement on the issue that will be adopted at the party\u2019s presidential nominating convention in Denver later this month has been well received by some pro-life Christians, who applaud its emphasis on abortion reduction.<\/p>\n

On a conference call Tuesday with journalists, several leading evangelical and Catholic activists welcomed the stress on abortion reduction as the \u201ccommon ground\u201d between those who support abortion rights and those who oppose them (camps which describe themselves as pro-choice and pro-life).<\/p>\n

A draft of the platform circulating last week \u2014 which insiders say has had few changes \u2014 said \u201cThe Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Supreme Court ruling granting women a constitutional right to abortion) and a woman\u2019s right to choose a safe and legal abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it also recognized the role of health care, education and \u201ccaring adoption programs\u201d in reducing \u201cthe need for abortions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The language seems to be more of a change of emphasis than a radical change from past positions.<\/p>\n

But it does strike a chord with some centrist evangelicals and Catholics who feel the pro-life and Republican Party aim of overturning Roe V. Wade has been futile and has not reduced abortions or offered support to low income women who may choose to terminate their pregnancies for economic reasons.<\/p>\n

Joel Hunter, a prominent evangelical mega-pastor from Florida who describes himself as a \u201ccompletely pro-life\u201d conservative Christian and registered Republican, hailed the shift in emphasis as \u201ccourageous and historic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Wallis, a leading figure on the religious left, said he saw it as \u201csorely needed common ground.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe could truly make reducing the abortion rate in America a non-partisan issue and a bipartisan cause. It is a common-sense approach,\u201d he said in an earlier statement.<\/p>\n

Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, also welcomed the move.<\/p>\n

Their positive reaction to the platform\u2019s language points to a broader shift among U.S. evangelical and other Christian movements to a wider \u201cagenda of life\u201d that includes a helping hand to the poor.<\/p>\n

Not everyone in the anti-abortion rights camp is happy with the language. For many conservative Christians abortion is the taking of an innocent life, period.<\/p>\n

Tom McClusky, the vice-president of government affairs at the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties, told Reuters that he didn\u2019t really see how the Democratic Party\u2019s take on the question had changed.<\/p>\n

Abortion remains one of the most divisive and emotive issues in U.S. politics and it is a divide that has tended to follow partisan fault lines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can also read a more detailed discussion of the issues, from some of those who participated in that conference call, at this link<\/a>. And the editor of Beliefnet, Steve Waldman, isn’t terribly impressed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Frankly, I don’t see a lot of moral courage — or any kind of courage — in the abortion plank. And I don’t see any meaningful change that endorses life, either. But that’s me. Obviously, others disagree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I looked over the proposed new language about abortion in the Democratic party platform, I shrugged. That’s it? Is that the best they could do? The plank still “strongly and unequivocally” endorses Roe v. Wade and the right to a “safe, legal” abortion. The rest, it seems to me, is window dressing. But others…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nWalking the plank: the Democrats and abortion - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walking the plank: the Democrats and abortion - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I looked over the proposed new language about abortion in the Democratic party platform, I shrugged. That’s it? Is that the best they could do? The plank still “strongly and unequivocally” endorses Roe v. Wade and the right to a “safe, legal” abortion. The rest, it seems to me, is window dressing. But others…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-14T09:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SKQwOdSEk3I\/AAAAAAAACxM\/LUnb13_rlzY\/s320\/rtr1w5c6.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Walking the plank: the Democrats and abortion - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Walking the plank: the Democrats and abortion - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"When I looked over the proposed new language about abortion in the Democratic party platform, I shrugged. That’s it? Is that the best they could do? The plank still “strongly and unequivocally” endorses Roe v. Wade and the right to a “safe, legal” abortion. The rest, it seems to me, is window dressing. But others…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2008-08-14T09:05:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SKQwOdSEk3I\/AAAAAAAACxM\/LUnb13_rlzY\/s320\/rtr1w5c6.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html","name":"Walking the plank: the Democrats and abortion - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SKQwOdSEk3I\/AAAAAAAACxM\/LUnb13_rlzY\/s320\/rtr1w5c6.jpg","datePublished":"2008-08-14T09:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-08-14T09:05:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SKQwOdSEk3I\/AAAAAAAACxM\/LUnb13_rlzY\/s320\/rtr1w5c6.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SKQwOdSEk3I\/AAAAAAAACxM\/LUnb13_rlzY\/s320\/rtr1w5c6.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/walking-the-plank-the-democrats-and-abortion.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Walking the plank: the Democrats and abortion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"description":"A Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, Greg Kandra is News Director for the diocese's cable channel, NET (New Evangelization Television.) Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}