Democrats for Life of America recently hosted a conference on the need for a bigger, more inclusive Democratic Party. Millennial editor Robert Christian, our 2017 Millennial of the Year Michael Wear, and millennial Catholic Anna Keating spoke at the conference. Here are some highlights of the conference:
.@ProLifeDem: @demsforlife wants a party that represents *all* Democrats. If we take our party back and #openthebigtent, we can take our country back.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
Amanda Perrault: Almost every family will face pressure to terminate their child if they’ve been diagnosed with a disability.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
.@KellyMRosati: Things are changing and a lot more people are becoming #wholelife
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
At @demsforlife conference, audience and speakers note that mental illness care for pregnant women seems especially overlooked.
— Kevin J. Jones (@kevinjjones) July 20, 2018
.@pastorartp: We cannot ignore the racism that motivated many Trump voters. We can’t pretend the motives were only economic.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
.@pastorartp: The disease of racism produces classism and is why poverty, low wages, inadequate housing, mistreatment of immigrants, euthanasia, etc. persist.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
.@pastorartp: America has never been great…for *all* Americans. We can’t accept the myth that it has.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
.@pastorartp: No one is an island. As Dr. King said, all life is interrelated. pic.twitter.com/LEaarZP3j3
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 20, 2018
Former Congressman Bart Stupak discusses his efforts to ensure the ACA, which led to over 20 million people gaining healthcare coverage, would pass and wouldn’t cover abortion. pic.twitter.com/Q2MJ6JUIEg
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@MichaelRWear: The Democratic Party needs pro-lifers. And the pro-life movement needs the Democratic Party.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@MichaelRWear: You join a political party not for it to influence you, but for *you* to influence the party.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@MichaelRWear: You don’t sign over your conscience when you sign up for a political party.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@MichaelRWear: Democrats have been much more successful when pro-life Democrats run and win. You’d think the party would care about this when Donald Trump is sitting in the Oval Office and Republicans continue to hold the House.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@MichaelRWear: This is not a time for withdrawal.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Jeannie French: We have to change hearts not just laws. We need fundamental change.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Jeannie French: If a woman feels compelled to have an abortion, there’s no real choice.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
At @demsforlife convention, Jeannie French says no babies with Spina bifida born at Loyola U-Chicago last year… tells story of a baby aborted after diagnosis of deafness. Heartbreaking. #ProLife
— Kevin J. Jones (@kevinjjones) July 21, 2018
Diane Pagen: Roughly 1000 out of over 63,000 people in Wyoming under the federal poverty level are getting TANF assistance. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Diane Pagen: Welfare reform was supposed to provide “the dignity of work.” But it has just provided dead-end work that leaves people with little income or time.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Diane Pagen: People who are poor have every right to be parents #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: A lot of Democrats disagree with the party on abortion but stay silent. We’ve got to speak up. pic.twitter.com/HExzKuBcSt
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: I appreciated the Democratic Party’s commitment to serving the least of these and recognition that government has a role to play in improving people’s lives. The party must not turn away from these fundamental values.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: We need the party to belong to the people not elites who seek to remake the party in their own image and to further their own interests.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: Democrats must believe in human dignity in all circumstances because every life matters no matter the person’s color or if they have a disability.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: Some Democrats have the mentality that your party should trump your religion. And this is happening when the party shifts from “legal, safe, and rare” to abortion as a positive good.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: To be a progressive, we must give a voice to the voiceless. I don’t define being a progressive as being a supporter of expressive individualism.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: How can you care about the unborn, if you don’t care about the poor or the immigrant? People ask these questions because too many pro-lifers don’t have a strong record on some of these other issues. We need to be #wholelife to be credible.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@JustinEGiboney: The Democratic Party needs Whole Life Democrats to have a seat at the table. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: The suicide rate has increased 30% in the last decade. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: Chronic loneliness is rising, including among young people.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: In our increasingly individualistic and libertarian culture, many people are disconnected from community.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating is highlighting the disconnect between people calling suicides by celebrities tragic but calling the assisted suicide of the vulnerable “courageous”, etc.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: Laws create norms. So it’s not surprising to see suicide rates increase where physician-assisted suicide is legalized.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for young Americans. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: Our choices are not made in a vacuum. Suicide contagion is real. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: More vets have died from suicide than in the Iraq War.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Anna Keating: “Active killing is never healthcare.” #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Lincoln Davis: Food assistance, Medicare and Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, labor laws for people in mines and factories…these are whole life accomplishments
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Lincoln Davis: Abortion isn’t a political issue for pro-life Democrats; it’s a life issue. We’re not interested in political games, but saving lives. pic.twitter.com/knd7qRDWAy
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Lincoln Davis: In 2006 and 2008, the party recruited pro-life Democrats and we won a majority in Congress.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Michael Baxter: Religious Freedom is not a partisan issue. Feeding the homeless, giving sanctuary to migrants, and conscientious objection to military service in war are all religious freedom issues.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@Terrisalin: The language of feminism is best suited to bringing millennials aboard the pro-life cause
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@Terrisalin: Millennials lean left on so many issues. But they are not more pro-choice than previous generations.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@Terrisalin: If trying to reach out to young people on the left, leading with talk about sexual morality is not likely going to be very effective.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@ryanbomberger: It’s radical to say in 2018 that every life has purpose.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@ryanbomberger: Every child is a wanted child…just sometimes not by their biological parents
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@ryanbomberger: The abortion industry targets the black community. The high abortion rate is not simply the product of poverty. Black lives matter *in and out* of the womb. pic.twitter.com/tQDvX7Tdki
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
Rob Rysavy: We’ve got to be there for women in real ways: jobs, housing, food, material support, pregnancy centers, etc. pic.twitter.com/BU0gCvXZ0E
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 21, 2018
.@RepLipinski: We need to be a big tent party that welcomes pro-life voters and candidates.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 22, 2018
.@CCamosy lists 7 principles for a consistent life ethic in a throwaway culture pic.twitter.com/Iimkex0GGU
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 22, 2018
.@CCamosy: Protecting the right to life can’t be about direct and intentional killing alone. We are morally responsible for more than that. pic.twitter.com/uQ928VCILr
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 22, 2018
.@CCamosy: We might see Roe/Casey overturned but lose the larger battle for the culture because the movement is so closely identified with Trump and the GOP.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 22, 2018
.@CCamosy: Whenever we give excessive autonomy and privacy to powerful people, it’s always the vulnerable who pay the costs.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 22, 2018
James White: The Democratic Party has long been the party of the downtrodden, disadvantaged & voiceless. Its mission is to lift up the powerless to give them a fighting chance. Being Pro-Life isn’t inconsistent w/ the party’s mission but rather taking it to its natural conclusion
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 25, 2018
James White: How can the party which led the fight for civil rights and immigration reform…which has for decades had its focus on the dignity and inalienable rights of all people… turn a blind eye to this horrific injustice happening within its own society? #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 25, 2018
James White: Pro-Life Democrats are simply living out their party’s ideal of supporting and uplifting the disadvantaged. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 25, 2018
Pro-life Democrats’ message is…that no person, whether immigrant, refugee, or unborn, is an inconvenience; that society is capable of supporting women through difficult pregnancies; that one can and should hold onto principled beliefs in the face of political pressure…
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 25, 2018
.@RGC3: When money dominates the political system and economic elites control both parties, whole life candidates are at a tremendous disadvantage. We need political reform (primary, gerrymandering, campaign finance, voting rights) not just policy reform. #DFLA2018
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 25, 2018
.@rgc3: Being pro-life really only makes sense if you believe in the worth of each person. And if you believe in this immeasurable worth, it’s simply impossible to stop at simply trying to prohibit killing.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 26, 2018
.@rgc3: If we don’t look out for people with disabilities, people will not take our commitment to unborn children with disabilities seriously. This is true of racial justice. And this is true when it comes to the full equality of women and girls.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 26, 2018
.@RGC3: A large number of people in the pro-life movement are using progressive rhetoric: This is a social justice issue. It’s about equality. It’s about human rights. It’s about protecting the vulnerable. These are the arguments that resonate most with millennials.
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) July 26, 2018
Millennial 