Democrats for Life of America: on the outside looking in.

DEMOCRATS FOR LIFE OF America was supposed to change the direction and ideology of the Democratic Party. Its leaders laid claim to a mission that would "get in there and battle NARAL and the well-funded pro-choice groups" as well as "free" the Democratic Party, which had "allowed itself to be controlled by pro-choice forces and suffered as a result." But, much like its heralded "new national office, located in Washington, D.C.," Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) is more myth than fact, more fantasy than reality.

The press release DFLA issued two days after John Kerry's narrow 2004 loss to President George W. Bush said it all: "Democrats for Life of America urged the Democratic National Committee to concede its pro-abortion position today on the heels of one of the worst Election Day performances in recent memory." The release continued, "When Democrats take a stand and protect the rights of the unborn, we win elections. When Democrats campaign on a pro-abortion platform, they lose."

While swift-boating the abortion issue is hardly new for politicians who have been defeated at the ballot box and are looking for any reason but themselves to explain their losses, DFLA was aiming to jump-start a movement that was seen to be on life support, and any public trepidation by Democrats over abortion could provide the legitimacy they were searching for. As would become an all-too-familiar pattern for this organization, however, its hyperbole and pomposity following the 2004 election would far exceed its organizational ability to deliver change and represent the prolife contingent within the Democratic Party.

DFLA was founded in January 1999 with a vision of fostering "respect for life, from the beginning of life to natural death." Its agenda includes opposition to abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia, as well as opposition to embryonic stem cell research. DFLA has consistently struggled to gain the respect of not only the leadership of the Democratic Party, but also the party's national moderate-to-progressive following--a clear majority of whom support a woman's right to a full range of reproductive-health care services.

The party faithful have spurned DFLA for reasons including, but not limited to, the very un-"Democratic" company the organization chooses to keep--from firebrand Republican congressman Christopher Smith of New Jersey, one of the organization's congressional champions, to antichoice zealot Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, to the ultraconservative Family Research Council.

LEADERS AND ADVISERS

The leadership and advisory committees Of DFLA comprise a mix of members of Congress, former members of Congress, party activists, academics and failed candidates for public office.

The DFLA National Advisory Board includes names that are part of the Democratic Party establishment: former congressman Chris John of Louisiana; former congressman Tim Roemer of Indiana, who was a candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee following the 2004 campaign and had the active support of Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid; and Raymond Flynn, former Boston mayor and ambassador to the Vatican.

The organization's Federal Advisory Board consists of prolife members of Congress representing a gamut of prolife stances. Some have had sharp ideological disagreements with DFLA on issues such as contraception and embryonic stem cell research. The board includes congressmen Jerry Costello of Illinois, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, James Langevin of Rhode Island, Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, James Oberstar of Minnesota, Tim Ryan of Ohio, Bart Stupak of Michigan and Gene Taylor of Mississippi. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is also a member.

The DFLA Board of Directors is a mix of longtime prolife "progressive" activists and failed candidates for public office. Of nine members, five have failed in campaigns for Congress. The members include Janet Robert, president of the board and owner of the Air America affiliate in Minnesota; Carol Crossed, former director of the Seamless Garment Network; Joe Turnham, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party; Joan Barry, vice president of the board and a former member of the Missouri House of Representatives; Pat Casey, son of late Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey; Silvia Delamar of Georgia; Louis Koenig of Ohio; Brian Keaney, secretary-treasurer of the board; and Paul Contino, an associate professor at Pepperdine University.

ORGANIZATIONAL GROWTH

In June 2002, the organization hired its first executive director, Kristen Day, on a part-time basis. Day came to DFLA after serving as chief of staff to antichoice Democratic congressman Jim Barcia of Michigan, who at the time was co-chair of the prolife caucus. Although Day's hiring was hailed as the start of a new era of growth for DFLA, the organization's anemic financial outlook and staffing patterns indicate an organization on the outside of the party looking in.

In announcing Day's hire, Lois Kerschen, then president of the DFLA Board of Directors, said Day would be staffing DFLA'S "new national office, located in Washington, D.C." Just four years later, a visit to DFLA'S current published mailing address at 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Suite 900, revealed that the "national office" is nothing more than an answering service that directs calls to a number of different organizations. This service may be all DFLA needs, however, as Day is actually a part-time employee, working--according to 2005 tax filings--20 hours a week at a salary of $30,000.

DFLA'S 2005 tax filings confirm that the organization has struggled to convince prolife Democrats that a national organization would make a difference to their cause. For that year, total revenue for DFLA was $67,051. Of this amount, $40,420 was in the form of contributions, gifts and grants, and $12,485 was in the form of membership dues. At the end of the reporting year, DFLA'S finances were in the red to the tune of $5,960.

This is not to say that Day has not increased the visibility of the organization. Since arriving at DFLA, she has organized national recognition dinners, the DFLA political action committee (PAC), and events at the 2004 Democratic National Convention--where, after the platform committee reaffirmed a woman's right to choose and specifically supported the reproductive rights of the poor, Day told the Baptist Press, "The platform language is definitely disturbing.... The platform committee was out of step with both the American public and Democrats."

More often than not, Day acts as a cheerleader for antichoice Democratic lawmakers, issuing congratulatory press releases on the DFLA Web site after they vote to restrict reproductive rights.

Day also has worked to increase the field operations of DFLA. Whether this initiative for growth has been successful depends on who you ask. In 2005, DFLA claimed to have 40 state chapters, with plans to add additional chapters by 2006. But DFLA board member Crossed conceded to prolife writer Mary Meehan that the group's membership growth was, in fact, "very slow" and that "there certainly isn't any money invested in that kind of thing."

Lack of funds could be limiting the effectiveness of other DFLA initiatives. Seeking to influence the Democratic platform and the 2006 midterm elections, DFLA formed Democrats for Life of America Inc. PAC to combat the prochoice views held by most Democratic operatives and elected officials. Day said, "Groups working nationally that are pro-choice have a tremendous head start on us.... When they put on a fundraising dinner, pro-choice members of Congress not only attend but write $5,000 checks. We'll have to see if prolife Democrats in Congress are as serious." Clearly, they were not. Despite its best intentions, the DFLA PAC has not raised enough funds to "get in there and battle NARaL and the well-funded pro-choice groups," its announced intention.

According to the Federal Election Commission, the beleaguered PAC listed total receipts of $15,255 for the 2006 election. By contrast, NARAL Pro-Choice America's PAC listed receipts of $1,700,309. For 2006, the DFLA PAC listed just two donors, both of whom are on the DFLA board of directors. Crossed contributed $5,000, and Robert donated $10,000, exceeding the allowable donation amount by $5,000 and forcing the cash-poor organization to issue a refund.

The PAC listed only II direct contributions to candidates in 2006: $2,000 to John Cranley, who lost a bid for Congress; $500 to the successful Senate campaign of Pennsylvania's Bob Casey, another son of the late governor; $500 each to Joseph Donnelly's, Charlie Melancon's and Charlie Wilson's winning congressional bids; $500 to Kenneth Ray Lucas for Congress, a losing campaign; $250 to the Brad Ellsworth for Congress Committee, a winning effort; and $250 to Heath Shuler's winning congressional run. The filings also show an independent expenditure in the amount of $360 for Friends of Bill Gluba, the latter being a loser in the Iowa congressional primary.

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THE 95-10 INITIATIVE

Seeking to shape a prolife Democratic agenda in Congress, DFLA under Day's direction began work on what would become known as the 95-10 Initiative, a package of legislative and policy initiatives that sought to reduce the number of abortions by 95 percent within 10 years by "promoting abstinence, personal responsibility, adoptions and support for women and families who are facing unplanned pregnancies."

The 16-point proposal includes a federally funded toll-free number to direct women with unplanned pregnancies to non-abortion counseling; increased federal collection of abortion data; federal funding to school districts for "age-appropriate pregnancy prevention education"; support for "women's right to know" measures, which typically require abortion clinics to give women biased information that overstates the physical and psychological risks of abortion; grants to allow so-called crisis pregnancy centers to purchase ultrasound equipment; and support for parental-notification measures.

A bill based on the initiative was to be introduced by DFLA Federal Advisory Board members Davis, Stupak and, principally, Ryan. By the middle of 2006, however, DFLA walked away from Ryan's bill over a difference of opinion on the role of contraception in pregnancy prevention and abortion reduction. Whether Day knew it at the time or not, the episode would end up further fracturing DFLA'S support and diminishing whatever influence it had with those prolife members who believe contraceptives critical to reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion.

According to Meehan, the prolife writer, the concept of the bill as announced in 2005 included a requirement for insurance companies to cover contraception. Pressure from antichoice activists including Priests for Life's Pavone, whom Meehan describes as "a friend of Democrats for Life," had "major problems with that provision and not only because of traditional Catholic teaching against contraception," Meehan said. He stressed the oft-repeated and erroneous antichoice claim that "so much 'contraception' is, in fact, early abortion under a different name," she said.

DFLA regrouped after rejecting Ryan's bill and rallied behind a proposal sponsored by Davis and known as the Pregnant Women Support Act. Ryan, meanwhile, partnered with Third Way: a Strategy Center for Progressives and prochoice congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut to garner substantial media coverage for his bill, substantial components of which were inserted into the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill.

DFLA'S promotional material for the 95-10 Initiative follows the script of conservative antichoice organizations that rely heavily on guilt and misleading information to try and dissuade women from having abortions and to downplay the need for reproductive choice and education.

According to DFLA, "Most women who have abortions do so with great reluctance, and many would decide otherwise if they had greater support in bearing or raising the child and if alternatives were available to them. By far the two most common reasons for having abortions are that the woman's life would be dramatically changed (for example, losing educational or career opportunities) and that she cannot afford another child." Although it is true that abortion is a serious decision, women have abortions for many reasons unrelated to finances or timing.

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DFLA rightly notes that "preventing pregnancy is an important part of reducing the abortion rate in America" and that "there are several ways to address prevention," but it goes on to claim erroneously that "there is no clear consensus" about how best to pursue prevention "because of ethical, religious or personal reasons." When the Ryan-DeLauro legislation was introduced, DFLA was quick to denounce its emphasis on pregnancy prevention: "Our goal is to help pregnant women," said Day, adding that Ryan's legislation was about "more prevention and contraception."

DFLA admits that its reason for including funding for ultrasound apparatuses in its proposal is because "seeing a sonogram helps mothers make the emotional attachment to their unborn child. This has become increasingly true for women 'raised in today's visually oriented society.'" The proposal also says DFLA will "provide accurate information to patients receiving a positive result from an alpha-fetoprotein test." DFLA questions the accuracy of this widely used test for genetic disorders such as spina bifida and Down syndrome, suggesting that false-positive results are widespread and that inaccurate counseling leads to unnecessary abortions, even though no credible medical body has identified any such problem.

The Lincoln-Davis bill attracted just 27 sponsors, a handful of whom were Republicans. As of late July, Davis had not reintroduced his bill in the new Congress, but was working to do so.

During the 2006 election cycle, in which the Democrats regained majorities in the House and the Senate, DFLA executive Day bragged to the Baptist Press that "we worked very closely with the DCCC this election. We coordinated in helping identifying prolife candidates. There was really much more openness and support for the pro-life candidates. I think it was very encouraging."

The Democratic majority in the House was the first since 1994, with prolife Democrats providing seven of the 31 new seats. New Democratic senators included Bob Casey, to whose campaign DFLA had contributed. But most new profile Democrats simply replaced incumbent prolife Republicans, resulting in a disappointing election for the prolife cause as a whole. This reality did not dissuade DFLA from calling the election a "tremendous victory for pro-life Democrats and a signal that the Democratic Party can no longer be considered the party of abortion."

Although select prolife Democrats will continue to hold key leadership positions in Congress and to be instrumental in pursuing policies based on the widespread desire to reduce the need for abortions in America, Democrats for Life of America--in view of its own goals of electing prolife Democrats, supporting the latter once elected, promoting a prolife plank in the party platform, passing prolife legislation and participating actively in party functions and offices--fails to measure up.

ROGER J. LIMOGES is the director of public policy at Catholics for a Free Choice.

This article is largely based on a new report from CFFC, Democrats for Life of America--Not Prolife Democrats. See www.CatholicsForChoice.org for ordering information.