Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Clinton ignored pro-lifers at her own peril, Democrats say

Clinton ignored pro-lifers at her own peril, Democrats say

Last updated on: November 11, 2016 at 9:40 pm by CNA Daily News

Clinton ignored pro-lifers at her own peril, Democrats say 2016-11-11T21:40:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Washington D.C., Nov 11, 2016 / 02:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of Hillary Clinton's electoral defeat in Tuesday's presidential election, pro-life Democrats and faith voters criticized the party's pro-abortion support and lack of religious outreach.

“Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party decisively lost Tuesday’s election, thanks in large part to the party’s extreme abortion position, which alienated would-be Clinton voters,” the group Democrats for Life of America stated in a press release on Wednesday.

“We cautioned in our DNC Report – Make Room for Pro-Life Democrats & Achieve Party Goals Nationwide – that the party is slowly dying and on the way to being irrelevant if it does not start a dialogue with its pro-life members,” Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, stated.

On Nov. 8 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, earning a majority of electors to become the next president although Clinton narrowly won the popular vote.

Trump, who in 1999 had supported partial-birth abortion, campaigned on a pro-life platform that included promises like a late-term abortion ban and the appointing of pro-life Supreme Court justices.

Clinton, meanwhile, championed access to abortions for women and supported the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, a 40 year-old policy that prohibits federal tax dollars from funding abortions.

Democrats lost many potential voters because of their party’s extreme pro-abortion platform, Day insisted.

She said that in key traditionally-Democratic states that Trump picked up like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Clinton lost many voters like “soft Republicans; anti-abortion Independents, and millions of pro-life voters in her own party” who might have listened to her had she not supported abortion so staunchly.

“One of the reasons she lost these groups is that she championed an extremist abortion platform,” Day said.

The abortion plank of the platform – criticized even by President Obama’s 2012 campaign director of faith outreach Michael Wear as “morally reprehensible” – supported late-term abortions, the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, and also the repeal of the Helms Amendment which prohibited the funding of abortions in foreign aid.

Abortion was mentioned 19 times in the party’s platform, Dr. Matthew Bunson, EWTN senior contributor, told EWTN News Nightly during the Democratic National Convention in July, adding “that itself gives us an idea of the seriousness of this issue for them.”

Many voters – especially those in traditionally-Democratic Rust Belt states that surprisingly fell for Trump – were turned off by this “extremist abortion platform,” Day said.

“Americans want to see wages rise, and they want to see more people protected with health insurance, and they want to protect the environment, but they absolutely do not support abortion-on-demand,” she said. “The Democratic Party is going to be the party of coastal, urban elites if it does not change course and respect the social conscience of pro-life voters.”

One young voter agreed that the pro-abortion platform and rhetoric from Democratic circles was toxic to many Democrats and Republicans.

“The abortion plank of the platform was a figurative middle finger, not only to the 21 million plus pro-life Democrats, but also to those who vote Republican purely because of abortion and the tens of millions of other Democrats who favor some restrictions on abortion,” Robert Christian, editor of Millennial journal, told CNA/EWTN News.

“In a tight election, a lot of things would have pushed Hillary over the top, but we can be certain that abortion absolutism was one that cost her the election,” he added.

Christian said that he heard “from dozens upon dozens of fellow pro-life Democrats and progressives” and “young Catholics who sincerely believe in Catholic moral and social teaching” who could not vote for Hillary due to her pro-abortion policies and rhetoric.

Others complained that the Clinton campaign had overlooked certain religious voters. For example, Clinton lost White Catholics to Trump by 23 points, the largest margin of defeat for that voting bloc for a major presidential candidate since at least the 2000 election. Clinton lost Catholics overall by seven percent.

Michael Wear tweeted on Thursday that “The most basic understanding of religious demographics in America suggested Trump’s only path to victory was Rust Belt White Catholics.”

Wear also implied that the Democrats’ support for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment hurt their standing with Evangelical voters.

“I believe there was an absolute failure to reach out to people of faith by the Clinton campaign,” Christian said, noting that Clinton “rarely talked” about her faith.

“It is tough to overstate how foolish this decision was,” he added.

“Bourgeois liberalism, rooted in enlightened self-interest, social libertarianism, and technocratic pragmatism, is not the right answer to populist nationalism.”

“Democrats need to recommit to solidarity, human dignity, and genuine human equality and rebuild the party around a shared vision of social, economic, and global justice; this can only be done by working with religious humanists of all faith traditions to rebuild the party from the ground up.”

Christopher Hale, executive director of the group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, tweeted that last year, “one Dem official told me that they were going to pursue a ‘post-Christian’ outreach strategy.”

“That worked well,” he tweeted sarcastically.

Previous Post

November 11, 2016

On last Mercy Friday, Francis meets men who left the priesthood

Next Post

November 11, 2016 UK cardinal: There are more homeless people than you think

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How did Jesus respond when accused of eating with sinners?

Select your answer to see how you score.

"Don't call me teacher" "I have no friends" "I am hungry" "I came to call sinners to repentance"