Faith In Public Life - Blogging Faith

Faith in Public LIVE: Sullivan on Honest Disagreement and Prevention First (Part 6)

Dear Thurman and David,

I'll harp on this just one more time before moving onto the question David posed, which also addresses a challenge Thurman raised as well.

I continue to disagree that the reason Casey was able to demand equal time with a group that had only been engaging with Republicans was because of his pro-life credentials. For one thing, he was simply making them abide by IRS regulations for tax-exempt groups--you don't have to be pro-life, pro-choice, or pro-wrestling to do that. And, of course, he could have forced them to play by the rules by filing a complaint against them. This, however, allows him to avoid the charge of being anti-religion and actually promote the fact that he's interested in hearing what they have to say. That's very different from agreeing with them, which I think most people have forgotten does not have to be the prequisite to having a conversation.

But more importantly, Casey doesn't agree with the PPN on everything. They have the same approach to abortion, yes, but this group has made the Federal Marriage Amendment a big priority this year, and Casey walked in on Monday and told them in no uncertain terms that he disagrees with their position. I'm told by someone who was there that the crowd seemed to respect him for the fact that he was willing to stand up to his own party on abortion and to even stand up to them on the marriage amendment. Again, I think the key is honest and respectful dialogue. They can still go off and try to smear him as godless, but the charge won't ring true to many voters. And that is repeatable by other Democrats, even pro-choice Democrats.

That said, it does worry me that the two recent Democratic candidates who have seemed to understand religion the best have been pro-life. I don't think for a minute that the only Democrats who can successfully communicate their religious faith and thereby neutralize the charge of godless Democrats are those who are pro-life. But it concerns me that many Democrats and progressives might make that assumption (and perhaps honestly so, given the two most visible examples), and therefore give up on the project of reaching out to religious communities because they will assume that means moving in the pro-life direction.

That's where the Prevention First strategy that David mentioned comes in. Despite the fact that Reid's speech on Monday could not have been more lackluster, and that the Senate Democrats have inexplicably waited eighteen months after introducing this legislation to finally start promoting it, I believe Prevention First could be the key to completely rehauling the abortion debate the way that "Partial-Birth" did ten years ago.

Reid had one line in the speech that I hope Democrats repeat over and over as they introduce this new way of thinking about abortion (I'm paraphrasing here without the transcript): "It's strange that the people who say they're most opposed to abortion are the ones standing in the way of preventing abortion." If Democrats can pull this off, pro-life voters will have to seriously reconsider which party is more pro-life. Here's what I mean: If you believe on principle that Roe v. Wade should be overturned and abortion outlawed completely in the United States, and you won't settle for anything less, well, the Democratic Party is not the party for you (although I'd argue that the GOP doesn't intend in a million years to let any of that happen....) But if what you want is to see abortion rates reduced, let's look at how successful each party's strategy might be.

The GOP wants to overturn Roe. Okay, well, we know that at least 40 of the states would still allow abortion, and in the ten or so that would outlaw it, abortion isn't too available right now. So at most, we're looking at a 10 percent reduction in abortions. Parental notification laws haven't reduced abortion rates, nor have partial-birth bans. So those add a big fat zero to the overall number. Democrats, however, want to make contraceptives more affordable and available, reform adoption laws, restore real sex education, and increase funds for programs that help pregnant women and new mothers. The combination of higher contraception use but lower rates of sex among teenagers resulted in a thirty precent drop in teen pregnancies over the past 15 years. If the same could be accomplished with teens and adults, you're looking at an enormous drop in the rate of unwanted pregnancies, which automatically means a drop in abortion rates.

I realize it's not communicable in a soundbyte. But that, again, is one of the reasons that state party chairs and others have been reaching out to more conservative constituencies to have meetings. Over the course of an hour-long meeting, it's possible to explain this approach and actually get people to sit up and pay attention.

I've worked myself into a small optimistic fever here, so feel free to bring me back to reality. But I'm very interested in your thoughts.

all the best,
Amy