WASHINGTON, D.C., April 27, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Timothy Dolan has called the new Democratic National Committee chair’s pledge to support only pro-abortion candidates “extreme” and “intolerant.”
The cardinal also said the pledge was “very disturbing” and urged Democrats to challenge party leadership to repudiate the intolerant stance.
In a statement released Wednesday, the chair of the USCCB's Committee on Pro-Life Activities noted how the Democrats’ party platform already supports abortion throughout the entirety of a mother’s pregnancy, and also how the party endorses “even forcing taxpayers to fund it.”
“And now the DNC says that to be a Democrat — indeed to be an American — requires supporting that extreme agenda,” Cardinal Dolan stated.
Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, had promised in a statement last Friday to back only Democratic candidates who hold a pro-abortion position. Perez said the position was non-negotiable.
“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez said. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”
“At a time when women’s rights are under assault from the White House, the Republican Congress, and in states across the country,” he said, “we must speak up for this principle as loudly as ever and with one voice.”
Perez’s statement came amid pro-abortion backlash for the DNC having backed Heath Mello, a Democratic mayoral candidate in Omaha, Nebraska, who has a previous pro-life voting record.
A campaign statement from the former Nebraska state senator had said in his most recent term in the legislature that Mello had voted 100 percent with Planned Parenthood’s Nebraska PAC. The statement said as well that Mello personally opposed abortion but would “never do anything to restrict access to reproductive health care.”
“I fundamentally disagree with Heath Mello’s personal beliefs about women’s reproductive health,” Perez said in his statement last Friday. “It is a promising step that Mello now shares the Democratic Party’s position on women’s fundamental rights. Every candidate who runs as a Democrat should do the same because every woman should be able to make her own health choices. Period.”
In the New York cardinal’s response to Perez’s pledge to limit Democratic Party backing to pro-abortion candidates, Dolan remarked that abortion does not empower women and that authentic solidarity with pregnant women and their children is not confined within partisan lines.
“Indeed, women deserve better than abortion,” Cardinal Dolan said. “In the name of diversity and inclusion, pro-life and pro-'choice' Democrats, alike should challenge their leadership to recant this intolerant position.”
Cardinal Dolan’s full statement is below:
“The recent pledge by the Democratic National Committee chair to support only candidates who embrace the radical unrestricted abortion license is very disturbing. The Democratic Party platform already endorses abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy, even forcing taxpayers to fund it; and now the DNC says that to be a Democrat — indeed to be an American — requires supporting that extreme agenda.
True solidarity with pregnant women and their children transcends all party lines. Abortion doesn't empower women. Indeed, women deserve better than abortion.
In the name of diversity and inclusion, pro-life and pro-'choice' Democrats alike should challenge their leadership to recant this intolerant position.”