Remarks by Tom Berg - Democratic National Convention
Democrats for Life of America Panel
Tuesday, September 4
Why do I call myself a pro-life Democrat, and why do I work with an organization called Democrats for Life? For two reasons: I believe in the overall values the Democratic Party has stood for, and I believe the problem of abortion cannot be seriously addressed without those values.
Democrats have historically taken the side of the vulnerable and insisted that society has a role in protecting them. Pro-life Democrats continue to follow those values and call on the Party to follow them concerning unborn children, who are human beings in positions of total vulnerability.
We also believe that there is no way of solving the problem of abortion without strong social supports for women and children. Preventing abortion requires addressing the economic and other pressures that make abortion seem, for so many women, like the only choice. Supporting women and children is the right thing for a just society to do. Pro-choice and pro-life people can find common ground on that. And supporting women and children is necessary for the pro-life position to succeed. If women are in desperate circumstances because of holes in our social safety net, abortions will rise. And pro-lifers can talk all the want about laws restricting abortion: public opinion will increasingly turn against those laws if people see women to be in desperate circumstances. Only a whole-life approach can reduce abortion for the long term.
Steve Schneck will talk more about the evidence linking poverty and abortion. Three-quarters of women having abortions listed inability to afford a child as a major factor in their decision. Abortion rates are four times as high among women below the federal poverty level. In Western Europe, despite its liberal social attitudes, abortion rates run well below those of America because of the European safety net.
Unfortunately, today
