General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReproductive Rights Section of the 2016 Democratic Party Platform
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/papers_pdf/117717.pdfThis is the statement of the Democratic Party, as of July 21, 2016. All candidates and party delegates pledge to support the Democratic Party Platform. This represents the Party's position on reproductive rights. This is why we vote for Democrats. I highly recommend reading the entire Party Platform at the link above. It's in pdf format and is easily printed for reading at any time if you have questions about the positions of the party in any area. This Platform was adopted at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and remains in force until a new Platform is adopted in the Summer of 2020. Remember, all Democratic candidates and convention delegates pledge their support for the platform. If you find one who is not doing that, call them out on it and send them the appropriate section of the platform document and insist that they follow it.
Incidentally, as a congressional district convention delegate, I have pledged my support for this platform, and fully support it.
Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice.
We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access
to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortionregardless of
where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured. We believe that
reproductive health is core to womens, mens, and young peoples health and wellbeing. We
will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers,
which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to opposeand
seek to overturnfederal and state laws and policies that impede a womans access to abortion,
including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. We condemn and will combat any acts of
violence, harassment, and intimidation of reproductive health providers, patients, and staff. We
will defend the ACA, which extends affordable preventive health care to women, including nocost
contraception, and prohibits discrimination in health care based on gender.
We will address the discrimination and barriers that inhibit meaningful access to reproductive
health care services, including those based on gender, sexuality, race, income, disability, and
other factors. We recognize that quality, affordable comprehensive health care, evidence-based
sex education and a full range of family planning services help reduce the number of unintended
pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.
And we strongly and unequivocally support a womans decision to have a child, including by
ensuring a safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth, and by providing services during
pregnancy and after the birth of a child, including adoption and social support services, as well as
protections for women against pregnancy discrimination. We are committed to creating a society
where children are safe and can thrive physically, emotionally, educationally, and spiritually. We
recognize and support the importance of civil structures that are essential to creating this for
every child.
Squinch
(50,955 posts)Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)There are people here and elsewhere who are anti-choice and are dems.
Anti - gun control who consider themselves dems.
Ok... can you be anti-affirmative action and be a Dems ?
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,732 posts)as a Democrat has a lotta 'splainin' to do if he advocates for a position that is completely in opposition to a major principle as stated in the party platform.
spanone
(135,844 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,732 posts)explain his deviation from the party platform, and why should the national party support such a candidate?
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)He is Anti-choice
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)So, apparently he's voting pro-choice all of the time, or his rating would be lower.
https://votesmart.org/interest-group/1016/rating/9755?p=2&of=#.WYdWz1GGOUk
Freddie
(9,267 posts)For any bill that would actually restrict women's rights. He recently had a FB post stating that his support for Planned Parenthood was "pro life" because contraception reduces the number of abortions. (Try to imagine a Republican saying that.) Casey is on our side. His father, the late Gov. Casey, was another story.
WinstonSmith4740
(3,056 posts)If he has a 100% rating from NARAL, then he's pro-choice, whether he wants to admit it or not. I mentioned this in another post, but part of our problem here is that during the opening salvos of this battle after Roe v. Wade was decided, our side of the aisle let the other side set parameters of the discussion. We let ourselves be called "pro-abortion", which sounded like we WANTED women to have abortions, while calling themselves "pro-life", when they were nothing of the sort. And it worked. I teach high school...girls today are aghast at the thought of terminating a pregnancy. A few years back, I had 2 girls who STARTED high school pregnant., (because we all know that discussing birth control will encourage them to have sex ) They both gave birth before their 15th birthday. One has a pretty good support system, but the other one was a little slow on the uptake on most things. No doubt in my mind that baby has been damaged...it's at least been a "shaken" baby.
Pro-choice is just that...empowering (and trusting) women to make the best decision for THEMSELVES, and their family. My closest and dearest friend wouldn't have an abortion no matter what. She'd crawl over cut glass every day if that's what it took to bring a healthy child into the world. She's a dedicated and fabulous mom...her "kids" are adults today, and awesome in their own right. I, on the other hand, chose another path when faced with the decision. I'm still not sure if all these years later she truly understands my decision, but she has always supported me. THAT'S pro-choice. How he thinks is one thing...as long as Casey VOTES to support our rights, he's OK.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Will they fight to keep the choice of a safe hygienic abortion accessible and legal, whether or not they would ever get one? Or do they work to make it more difficult or impossible for women to do so?
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)should be running for the other party. We don't need to risk more candidates like Gov. Justice installed in office only to switch later. Or, who will vote with GOP on this.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)In some cases, such a candidate may only be supported by the local party. We have a few such, but very few. If such a candidate were in my district, I'd work very hard to find someone to primary him or her. If in another district, I have to leave it up to the voters in that district. There's plenty to do where I am, frankly.
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)DURec
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)ismnotwasm
(41,989 posts)mcar
(42,334 posts)Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)JHan
(10,173 posts)BadgerMom
(2,771 posts)lancelyons
(988 posts)I believe in reproductive rights and hope the person chooses the child. But this isnt the most important issue to me.
Climate change is more important as is jobs, economy, getting rid of fox news, etc.
CaptainTruth
(6,594 posts)...then I can support them.
The important thing is what they DO, legislatively, not how they feel personally.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)when this argument was just starting to heat up.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029403714
Not many people responded, and there was some poo pooing. What has changed in five days?
ancianita
(36,067 posts)Poo pooing, I've noticed, tend to be evasions of "too soon" questions.
And posting credit isn't the main thing.
The main thing is that everyone gets exposure and frames that might affect future voters.
For some here, the more difficult or complicated the issue, the longer it takes to get traction.
I'm glad more DU males (at least, I think they're males) address this issue, since, for too long, men outside the nets have conveniently decided this to be a "women's problem" when it's really not.
I know you're not directly addressing me, but after waiting awhile, I just thought I'd 'weigh in.'
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)I am male, and I will tell you that there are a couple of reasons for my decision. The first is the obvious question of control over one's own body. That's a given. Now I understand that men might not have as visceral a response on that point. After all, it's not our bodies that are being controlled (it's an unfortunate reality that there is little empathy). However, the second point is what sticks for me. We have a platform that, I feel anyway, should be upheld by every candidate. Some feel that candidates can stick to the platform by 90% and still be considered a Dem. However, this element of the platform seems above and beyond others in importance. I know some liken the control over reproductive rights to slavery, and I can understand that view.
If there were a Dem candidate who stood for everything in the platform except, say, campaign funding, then I would vote for that candidate over a Republican. That is an easy choice. But for a Dem candidate to be anti-choice boggles my mind. I also don't know that I could trust such a candidate on other issues because he/she is so conservative on that issue.
It would be interesting to conduct a survey of Dem voters asking them to rank a series of issues in order of importance. I have a feeling that the results of such a survey would be a real eye opener.
ancianita
(36,067 posts)prioritize winning, or cannot win without men, but because, they prioritize surviving and they don't have to kill -- but need men's fighting instinct and imagination -- to get the human race toward civilization.
And so I appreciate your heartfelt response, which supports survival for women. And supports survival for future generations, as well.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)The platform is an ideal, a general ideology and specific goals and things to be protected. It states the philosophy and goals of the party, in a perfect world.
But it's non-binding, and politicians, just like voters, are free to vote on specific bills however they think best, for their constituents and how their constituents want them to vote.
Democrats, in fact, vote along party platform ideas less often than Republicans, who are more rigid and party-centric.
Think of McCain not voting for the GOP healthcare bill. Is that against their party platform? The devil is in the details. To McCain, it probably was not a bill in accordance w/their party platform. Does that mean almost all the other Republicans who did vote for it voted against their party platform?
This is not a perfect world, and people are not machines. There are differences. I would say that a politician should generally support almost all the platform goals and its philosophy. But few, if any, would 100% of the time support them all with their votes, for their district or state.
The choice is not between a Democrat winning in a conservative district and a progressive Democrat. The choice for that district is between a blue dog Democrat and a Republican. I'm of the belief that the Democrat is better. He or she will vote for the Democratic agenda most of the time, which is the most that any of the politicians do. Democrats vote along party lines less than 80% of the time. Republicans do it almost 90% of the time. Neither is 100%, since we're dealing with people, not machines.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-you-should-know-about-the-democratic-party-platform