The New York Times reports that the Democratic Party has recruited and is heavily funding a dozen pro-life candidates for the U.S. House. I’m particularly intrigued by Kathleen Dahlkemper, who I believe would become the only pro-life Democratic woman in Congress:
In the Third Congressional District of Pennsylvania, for example, the Republican incumbent, Phil English, is facing what analysts describe as a strong challenge from Kathleen Dahlkemper, a Democrat who has benefited from more than $1 million in spending by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Mrs. Dahlkemper has spoken openly on the campaign trail about her opposition to abortion and even shared a deeply personal story to drive home her message: how she decided to have a child 29 years ago when she was a single woman and a college student. “It was tough,” she recalled recently. “I was on food stamps.”
But her position has become an issue among some Democrats who view abortion rights as a bedrock Democratic principle. In the primary, for example, her opponents repeatedly criticized her opposition to abortion. “They were trying to say that I wasn’t a real Democrat because I am pro-life,” Mrs. Dahlkemper recalled. “I believe they have a narrow view of what a Democrat is.”
The Democratic Party’s angle on this, of course, is that they need the votes of pro-lifers to win in some districts. We as pro-lifers should take it as an opportunity to break the stranglehold that the Republican Party has on this issue, and to advocate for a modern, balanced, pro-woman and pro-life position from inside the Democratic Party.