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Liberal Christian leaders argued yesterday that the moral values held by most Americans are much broader than the handful of issues emphasized by religious conservatives in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Battling the notion that "values voters" swept President Bush to victory because of opposition to gay marriage and abortion, three liberal groups released a post-election poll in which 33 percent of voters said the nation's most urgent moral problem was "greed and materialism" and 31 percent said it was "poverty and economic justice." Sixteen percent cited abortion, and 12 percent named same-sex marriage.
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If the Democratic Party were to "welcome pro-life Democrats, Catholics and evangelicals and have a serious conversation with them" about ways to reduce teenage pregnancy, facilitate adoptions and improve conditions for low-income women, it would "work wonders" among centrist evangelicals and Catholics, Wallis said.
I get a lot of earnest pro-lifeish Democrats emailing me with things like this, looking for some sort of "compromise." Look, if you have a problem with abortion and want to find ways to reduce them rather than outlaw them, come on board. I for one don't much care about reducing abortions as a policy goal in and of itself, but I do care about reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. And, as long as the pro-life right is also battling contraceptive availability, fighting against OTC access to the "morning after" pill, which really isn't an abortaficient (or, to the extent than it is, should be much less offensive than the consequences of IVF procedures), fighting for laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to prescribe the pill (which is also prescribed for legitimate medical reasons other than to stop pregnancy), destroying sex education, and supporting economic policies which increase poverty, then it seems like supporting Democrats are the way to go.
If your pro-lifeness is wrapped up in a general anti-sex religious agenda, then stick with the Republicans. But, if you want to actually reduce the number of abortions with sensible policies then the answer is clear.
I don't have to share your views on abortion to support policies which are likely to help reduce their numbers. The compromise position is about supporting policies which reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies before the fact, and economic policies which make fewer pregnancies unwanted after the fact by reducing providing genuine economic help (especially medical care). Sounds like good Dem policies to me.