Evangelical Who Worked for Obama: 'Democrats Are Entirely Too Focused on Abortion'
An evangelical political activist who worked for Obama during the 2012 campaign and in the White House has argued that the Democratic Party is "too focused on abortion."
Michael Wear, an author and former Obama staffer who currently oversees the podcast Church Politics, wrote a Sunday column for the Los Angeles Times titled "Democrats are entirely too focused on abortion."
In his column, Wear argued that before the 2016 presidential election, the Democratic Party had a more moderate tone on abortion, allowing for "those who support something less than an absolute right to terminate any pregnancy for any reason" to feel welcomed in the Party.
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"But the architects of the modern pro-choice movement wanted more," wrote Wear, when Hillary Clinton became the presidential nominee.
"When she was asked about late-term abortion, Clinton did not call for abortions to be rare or note that under Obama, the abortion rate was at its lowest point since Roe was decided in 1973," explained Wear.
"Instead, she launched into an extended defense of late-term abortion that received rapturous praise from some quarters, with Vogue proclaiming that Clinton 'awesomely defended abortion rights.'"
Wear argued that this cost Clinton and other Democratic candidates votes and warned that Senate Democrats' strong support for abortion could harm them during the pending confirmation battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
"If the message the party delivers during the Senate hearings is single-mindedly focused on Roe and abortion rights, it may discourage support and turnout in many competitive districts crucial to switching the House and Senate from red to blue," continued Wear.
"Senate Democrats should forcefully test Kavanaugh's fitness for the bench. But to the extent the Kavanaugh hearings are going to be a policy referendum, let's be sure the nation hears from a party that is interested in more than just the fate of Roe vs. Wade."
Recently, the Democratic Party has garnered criticism for its strong support of abortion, with DNC Chair Tom Perez stating last year that the party would withhold support from any candidate that identified as pro-life.
In response to the backlash over Perez's comments, U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, who is also Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, announced that no litmus test on abortion would be used after all.
"As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America," stated Rep. Luján in 2017, as quoted by The Hill.
"To pick up 24 [seats in Congress] and get to 218, that is the job. We'll need a broad coalition to get that done ... We are going to need all of that, we have to be a big family in order to win the House back."
