Democrat leader promotes stand on so-called right to abortion

The Democratic National Committee’s chairman, Tom Perez, recently made a statement further demonstrating that the Democratic Party leadership is united to the advancement of the so-called right to abortion.

Perez’s statement reveals the appalling trend within the Democratic Party to further imbed a culture of death into civilized society. Courage is needed to continue vehemently rejecting such disdain for the dignity of human life.

While campaigning for Democratic candidates last month, Perez said:

"Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. 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, we must speak up for this principle as loudly as ever and with one voice."

Cardinal Timothy Dolan – chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities – responded:

"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."

The ultimate problem for Perez is not an intolerance of thought within a political party – though this is certainly problematic. The ultimate problem is the intolerance toward human life that has possessed Perez, much of the leadership and the platform of the Democratic Party.

Perez’s words and political actions represent an intolerance that reeks of a totalitarianism of which St. Pope John Paul II prophesied in 1995 when he wrote his famous encyclical, "Evangelium Vitae" (The Gospel of Life). Perez’s totalitarian stance that all Democrats – and all Americans – must support the right to kill unborn children flies in the face of freedom, a freedom upon which democracy must stand lest it crumble.

St. John Paul II declared that a political community that disregards principles of fundamental equality is transformed into a "tyrant state, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part."

And he further declared: "To claim the right to abortion, infanticide … and to recognize that right in law means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom."

Perez’s disregard for human life, especially for the unborn who cannot speak for themselves, is a frightful reality. This reality must be abandoned. But the abandonment of this position will only come through the tireless efforts of people of good will who will not stand for this type of political pressure and grandstanding.

I would call all Democrats – and all Americans – to action. But the action is to protect human life from the very moment of conception and stand in defense of the unborn. Such protection must necessarily include a robust and true understanding of the value and dignity of women and mothers. The Gospel of Life asks for no less than a full-fledged defense of human life.

Tom Venzor is executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, with headquarters in Lincoln. Contact him at tvenzor@necatholic.org.