This morning George Stephanopolous teed one up for Beto, who promptly swung and missed.
The question was this: “Is there any room in the Democratic Party no for those who oppose abortion.
Here is my list of ways that Democrats oppose abortion.
1. We favor comprehensive sex education that helps children understand their bodies, and helps them avoid unwanted pregnancies.
2. We favor the availability of contraceptives for every American in order to help them avoid unplanned pregnancies.
3. We support laws and social services to combat sexual assault (including assaults by acquaintances and family members), which often lead to unwanted pregnancies.
4. We support universal access to health-care, which will allow pregnant women to be secure in the knowledge that they and their children will receive care.
5. We support family leave policies that will keep women and families from having to choose between having a child and the economic stability their jobs offer.
6. We support a living wage, so that women and families can have confidence that they will be able to work and provide children.
7. We support affordable child-care, so that women who choose to have children will not be faced with impossible economic choices.
8. We support and want to fund the kinds of medical research which will combat the diseases in pregnant women and their children which sometimes make abortion the only viable option.
In every one of these cases, the Republican Party, which claims to be anti-abortion, opposes good policy which would reduce the number of abortions.
I welcome addition to and refinement of this list. I am sure some of them could use better wording, but every Democratic candidate for every office should memorize some form of this list and be ready to recite it at every opportunity. We are the pro-life party, and it is time to say so. The first sentence to say in response to that question is that if you are anti-abortion the Democratic Party is the only place to be.