Tuesday July 13, 2010
Dems for Life Starts ‘Whole Life Heroes’ PAC to Save Health Bill Supporters
By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Democrats for Life, the sole supporter of the federal health care bill among all major U.S. pro-life groups, is re-branding its political action committee to support Democrats who voted in favor of the federal health care bill – and drawing criticism for using the term “whole life” to describe that effort.
The PAC will support the fifteen U.S. House Democrats who professed to oppose the bill on pro-life principles, but then switched their vote at the 11th hour, after receiving a promise that an Executive Order from the Obama administration would prevent the federal funding of abortion in the bill.
As soon as the deal was struck, pro-life legal analysts overwhelmingly decried the move as a red herring. The White House later admitted that the Executive order served simply to “reiterate” what was already in the bill. Even the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which largely favored health care reform, did not accept the gesture, saying that the bill’s flaws regarding taxpayer funds for abortion were too grave.
Alone among pro-life groups, Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) insisted that the Executive Order was sufficient, and now is working to save the careers of Democrats whose last-minute support made passage of the bill possible.
According to a Facebook post, DFLA is starting a political action committee known as “Whole-Life Heroes” “to support 15 vulnerable antiabortion Democrats” who voted for the health care bill. “The PAC will try to persuade voters that executive orders are rarely overturned and that the law includes many provisions that abortion-rights opponents should support,” stated the group.
Jason Jones, the founder and president of the organization HERO’s Whole Life America, called the PAC “extremely misleading” and criticized DFLA for using the “whole life” name to defend Democrats who approved the abortion-expanding bill.
“On one hand, I am flattered that the DFLA thought so much of our organization that they borrowed our name. On the other hand, I am greatly offended that they would use our name to undermine human dignity,” said Jones in a statement.
Julie Schmit-Albin of Nebraska Right to Life told LSN that it has “become pretty clear through the last two election cycles that Democrats for Life of America have become a … provider of political cover for Dems of questionable pro-life record.”
“When we’ve taken issue with that in the past, they haven’t really responded with what is their criteria [for endorsing a candidate],” said Schmit-Albin, whose group dropped its endorsement of Sen. Ben Nelson after his last-minute decision to vote for the health care bill in December. DFLA continues to stand behind Nelson.
“They’ve certainly had to cut their ties with many of the pro-life organizations that used to embrace them, because they came out after health care and went kind of bonkers,” she noted.
Schmit-Albin said, however, that “I’m not saying there aren’t any pro-life Democrats left.” She named Dan Lipinski of Illinois, the only Democrat to vote for the version of the health care bill that included language barring funding of abortion, but then vote against it when the language wasn’t included. Lipinski himself, according to a Weekly Standard article, notes that there are several other pro-life House Democrats who never voted for the bill.
“I would never say that across the board, because you have examples like Daniel Lipinski. And at the state level, we have to work with our pro-life Dems,” said Schmit-Albin. She noted, however, that pro-life groups had to be “cautious” once Democrats reach the federal level, because that is when “the party begins to pull on them.”
DFLA did not respond to LifeSiteNews.com’s (LSN) request for comment.