Amy Sullivan takes abortion activists to task for their influence on the Dems

But the final straw came when Senate Democrats acted on this advice and recruited pro-life Democrat Bob Casey to run against Rick Santorum for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat in 2006.

Pro-choice advocates lashed out. National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy called out Kerry and Dean by name, and declared: ”If that’s what it means to have a big tent, if it means abandoning the core principles of our party, if it means throwing women’s rights overboard like so much ballast…then I say let’s keep the skunk out of the tent." The political director of Emily’s List, the fundraising group that has been one of the biggest sources of support for many Democratic candidates, complained, ”We fought like mad to beat back the Republicans. Little did we know that we would have just as much to fear from some within the Democratic Party."

The word soon went out that Casey would get no support from women’s groups, and powerful donors were encouraged to refrain from giving to his campaign. The race appears to have become a test case for many in the pro-choice community. They would rather see Casey lose than defeat Santorum, perhaps the Senate’s most vociferous abortion opponent.

As if to underline their point, NARAL took the unusual step of endorsing Senator Lincoln Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, a full year and a half before the 2006 election. The message was clear: a pro-choice Republican is always preferable to a pro-life Democrat.

It didn’t take long for NARAL to regret the move. Less than three weeks later, Chafee voted to support the nomination of radically conservative judge Janice Rogers Brown. NARAL issued an angry press release, warning Chafee that they would be ”watching closely his future votes on judicial nominees, including…those for the Supreme Court." Now, of course, Chafee has announced he will vote in support of Roberts. Meanwhile, the pro-life Reid–exactly the type of Democrat these groups would see defeated if they had their way–has announced that he will vote against Roberts’s confirmation.

Someday–perhaps as soon as the next Supreme Court nomination–there will be a serious threat to the right to choose. When that day comes, abortion rights groups are going to need all the help they can get, not just from their loyal base of abortion absolutists, but from moderates, from the Democratic Party, and from average Americans who simply don’t want to see abortion rights disappear. If they’re not careful, though, the next time they cry ”danger!" no one will be listening.