Cokie Roberts: Democratic Convention 'Over-the-Top' on Abortion
The Democratic National Convention presented an extremist view on the issue of abortion, according to Cokie Roberts, a liberal political analyst for ABC News and NPR.
"I think this Democratic Convention was really over-the-top in terms of abortion. Every single speaker talked about abortion," Roberts said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
"At some point, you start to alienate people. Thirty percent of Democrats are pro-life," she added.
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Roberts remarks came during a panel discussion that also included Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., and co-chair of the Democratic National Convention's platform committee.
Booker was in the middle of criticizing Republicans for not including a rape exception in their pro-life platform. After Booker implied that Republicans are extremist on abortion, Roberts challenged Booker on why the platform committee removed the phrase saying that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare," which had been in the platform since Bill Clinton ran on that platform in 1992.
"Hold on, stop for a second," Booker interrupted, "we had leaders in the Catholic Church, leaders in the Catholic faith, in our convention. I'm every single speaker, I was one of them, I didn't mention abortion at all. But, what I did mention was that we don't think we should be gutting family planning. We don't think we should be attacking Planned Parenthood. If you want to make abortion safe, legal and rare, support women's rights, women's access to health care."
"But you took that out of the platform," Roberts retorted.
"You're worried about those three words. I'm worried about real substantive policy, like access to health planning for families," Booker replied.
Roberts was not the only one to notice that pro-abortion views were prominently featured during the Democrat's convention. Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks made a similar point often while providing commentary for PBS during the convention.
On Tuesday night, for instance, he said he noticed "how much the crowd goes crazy and how passionate they are about abortion and gay marriage and the social issues."
The new Democratic Party platform calls for government funding for abortions. It states: "The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right."
