For immediate release: Monday, April 24, 2017
For more information: Tatiana Bergum, (202) 626-8825, mediarelations@nrlc.org

DNC CHAIR DEMANDS ABORTION PURITY TEST FOR ALL DEMOCRATS

WASHINGTON – Making the Democratic Party sound more like a small umbrella than a big tent, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said on Friday that the DNC would only support candidates who back an extreme abortion agenda calling for unrestricted abortion for any reason – including late abortions after 20 weeks – and taxpayer funding of abortion. He called support for abortion by Democratic candidates “not negotiable,” and said it “should not change city by city or state by state.”

“Dating back to the ouster of Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey from their 1992 convention, Democrats have become increasingly intolerant of pro-life Americans within their own ranks,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “By forcing all Democrats to pledge fealty to the abortion industry’s extreme agenda, Tom Perez has completed the party’s transformation and sent the message that pro-life Democrats are no longer welcome in their party.”

A November 2016 poll conducted by The Polling Company for National Right to Life found that 20% of Democrats self-identified as pro-life. The same poll also found just 20% of Democrats supported their party’s current position of unrestricted abortion for any reason, while 22% support limiting abortion to cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.

Tobias added: “There are still a significant number of Democratic voters who reject the abortion industry’s incessant call for unrestricted abortion on demand, and their party’s embrace of that agenda. The question now remains: will high profile Democrats like Senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who call themselves pro-life, stand up to their chairman and run as pro-life candidates without DNC support, join the pro-life Republican party, or flip-flop on abortion and betray those pro-life voters who helped elect them?”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

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