Kerby Anderson

Kristen Day asked former mayor Pete Buttigieg an important question. She is the executive director of Democrats for Life. She explained that there are 21 million pro-life Democrats and wanted to know if he would support “more moderate platform language in the Democrat Party to ensure that the party of diversity, of inclusion, really does include everybody.”

He was not interested in changing the language. None of the other Democrat candidates for president show any interest in returning to a more moderate perspective. Not so long ago, the platform followed the phrase used by Bill Clinton, who wanted abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare.” Alexandra Desanctis reminds us that eight years ago, the party removed the word “rare” from its platform. Four years ago, the party platform called for the repeal of the Hyde amendment, which has been added to spending bills on a bipartisan basis since 1976.

By the way, this shows the fallacy of the common statement by pundits that both parties have become more extreme. The Republican platform language on abortion hasn’t changed in decades. The Democratic platform became more extreme during each presidential election of the last decade.

The increased extremism on abortion may not help Democratic candidates. A recent Gallup poll discovered that nearly one-third of self-identified Democrats also describe themselves as pro-life. Even Democrats who don’t identify themselves in this way still favor restricting abortion much more than these candidates would allow.

I doubt that the 2020 Democratic Party Platform will include moderate language. If anything, the platform will probably have stronger statements about abortion. The passage in the New York legislature of the Reproductive Health Act that allows late-term abortions illustrates the extreme party attitudes on abortion.