As a pro-life Democrat, I am used to hearing a constant criticism, as annoying as it is untrue,“You’re not a real Democrat.”

Although no one said this to me when I began working in politics, it passes for the majority view among party elites today. While it’s true that I wholeheartedly believe that the Democratic Party should welcome and affirm people who are reluctant to celebrate abortion, I consistently list the issues that have historically united Democrats: taxes, environmental protection, immigration, health care, and labor.

Centers will not have to advertise how to get abortions

Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) commends the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the California law that required centers that oppose abortion and provide support to pregnant and parenting women to tell women how to obtain state-funded abortions. The law – the “Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care and Transparency Act” – would require pro-life pregnancy centers to “provide a government-drafted script about the availability of state-sponsored services, as well as contact information for how to obtain them.”

“Under the law, the pro-life centers would have been forced to promote abortion, the very service they were set up to oppose,” said Kristen Day, the executive director of Democrats for Life of America. “Many women in crisis pregnancy don’t want abortion – even abortion-rights supporters will agree with that.  The pro-life centers provide a viable option for women who don’t want abortion.”

 The law violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause by compelling pregnancy centers to advertise a message—how to get abortions—that they deeply oppose and that, indeed, conflicts with their very reason for existing. The law also discriminated against the state’s disfavored viewpoint—by singling out centers with a pro-life viewpoint, opposed to abortion, while doing nothing to ensure that abortion providers give information to their clients about alternatives to abortion.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra argued that “information is power, and all women should have access to information they need when making personal health care decisions.”

 “If the attorney general really believed that, he would have also required abortion clinics to provide women with referrals to one of the 135 pregnancy centers that offer women the right to parent,” said Day. “The law was singularly focused on sending women to abortion clinics instead of empowering women to make true decisions about their pregnancy and their future.”

Pro-life pregnancy centers offer women job training, clothing for both the mothers and babies, and other resources both during and after pregnancy.

“Pregnancy care centers give compassionate support to tens of thousands of women across the nation,” said Day. “They do not mislead women, as pro-abortion groups falsely claim. The court correctly ruled on this case.”

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Washington, DC: Democrats For Life of America congratulates Congressman Dan Lipinski on his well-deserved Primary win.

Steve Schneck, former Director of Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies summed up the victory in an early morning tweet, “Wrongheaded Democrat elites in DC targeted incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski for defeat by a primary opponent. Pro-life Lipinski does not bow to DC activists on abortion. But tonight, with the help of Chicago’s working-class Latinos & African-Americans Lipinski defeated the DC insider.”

“This was a win for the Big Tent Democratic Party,” said Kristen Day, executive director, Democrats For Life of America.

A recent poll before the election by NARAL Pro-choice America showed that women favored Lipinski by 43% to 40% and Hispanic voters by 44% to 33%.  African Americans supported Lipinski by a more considerable margin, 54% to 26%.

The pro-abortion lobby flooded the district with money and volunteers painting Representative Lipinski as a conservative who was out of touch with his district. They pointed to his vote against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), although he has been a vocal proponent of affordable healthcare and has opposed every attempt to overturn it. They also painted Dan as anti-immigrant telling voters he supports a border wall, which he clearly stated he did not. The groups used a 2006 vote, supported by a majority of Democrats, including then-Senator Obama to fund a fence along 700 miles of the Mexican border.

“The outside messaging called Dan conservative and not a real Democrat,” said Day. “His record says otherwise with an 88 percent Party loyalty rating and solid lifetime records with labor, education and environmental groups. The race was not about Dan’s record on traditional Democratic values. It was, plain and simple, about abortion and an effort to purify the Democratic Party of pro-life voices.”

The abortion lobby and Super PACs heavily financed Marie Newman's campaign.  The Citizens for a Better Illinois Super PAC controlled by NARAL leadership out of Washington, D.C. raised and spent over a $1 million against Lipinski.  Groups from outside the district also heavily attacked Lipinski. Postcards to Voters targeted Lipinski’s district providing people all over the country with names and address of voters in the 3rd Congressional district, urging voters to support Marie Newman. Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) also called for Lipinski’s defeat and provided his opponent with a contribution from her Super PAC.

"The amount of Democratic resources wasted on this campaign is quite frankly a failure of leadership by the DNC,” said Day. “This would have been the perfect opportunity to step in and say, ‘Congressman Lipinski is a moderate Democrat, who has been with us on many key issues, so our resources would be better used to protect Senate incumbents and fight for victories in purple House seats to give Democrats the House majority.’”

“Democrats have an opportunity to take back the House in November,” said Day,” but the key to winning is a Big Tent approach of inclusion and support for candidates who represent the views of their districts.”