The Elusive Pro-Life Democrat: The Kristen Day Interview
This is the Babylon Bee Interview Show. Kyle and Ethan talk to Kristen Day, the Executive Director of Democrats For Life of America. She caught the Bee's eye after putting Pete Buttigieg on the spot about whether or not there is a place in the Democratic Party for pro-life voters. Kyle and Ethan chat with her about abortion, pro-life activism, and partisan divides. Topics Discussed There are 21 million pro-life democrats that aren't being served by their party Kristen's pro-life convictions based on religious worldview and science Having an opinion on abortion without a uterus Safe, Legal, and Rare becoming Legal… 'Shout Your Abortion' Confronting Pete Buttigieg on whether there is room in the party for pro-life Dems The goals and activism of Democrats For Life of America How the pro-abortion lobby took control of the party The Democrats For Life are not officially endorsing Joe Biden "Pro-life for the whole life" Political strategies and strange alliances Adoption and pregnancy centers
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This is the Babylon Bee Interview Show.
Yes, welcome to the Babylon Bee Interview Show.
I'm Kyle Mann and with my co-host, Ethan Nicole.
Hey.
Today, we are talking to Kristen Day, who's the executive director of Democrats for Life of America.
And a lot of our conservative listeners might think that she's a creature that's more rare than like Bigfoot or something.
Something like we're interviewing a unicorn.
We don't hear often from pro-life Democrats, but Kristen, I mean, you've said that there's tens of millions of pro-life Democrats.
There are.
There are 21 million pro-life Democrats in this nation who are not being represented by the party currently.
Yeah, so when did that shift happen?
When did it happen where the pro-abortion lobby kind of took over the party?
It's been gradual.
It's been very gradual.
I think it really took a turning point in 2010 after Obamacare was signed into law.
Because the pro-life Democrats really banded together and strongly opposed taxpayer funding of abortion and Obamacare.
And there was a lot of anger after that passed.
Even though it passed, there was a lot of anger toward the pro-life Democrats from the party because they felt like we were trying to kill the bill.
And there was a lot of anger in the pro-life community against the pro-life Democrats as well because they felt like we sold out by endorsing the final version.
So that was really sort of the beginning of the end.
Because I think the pro-life Democrats were not trusted by the pro-life community or their own party.
And that next election cycle, just so many of the pro-life Democrats lost.
Thanks, Obama.
Yeah.
Yeah, man, that has to be a frustrating place to be.
Like, I don't even know a good comparison if you're a Republican, like an anti-war conservative.
Yeah, there you go.
That's what you kind of.
Kind of, right?
Yeah, I get it.
I mean, just being in a place where there's a major issue that you feel like you line up on so many things, and then there's one thing you're like, I can't get on board with this.
There's probably the temptation for a lot of people to disengage, but your tactic is more to take action within the party.
I mean, what kind of activism do you guys do within the party to try to take things back?
Right.
I think, you know, we've been pushing for a long time.
I've been involved in this organization since about the past 18 years.
And we have had successes over the years.
I know in 2006 and 2008, we really were able to get the party to embrace pro-life Democrats and endorse them and support.
So Steve Driehaus, Kathy Del Kemper, Brad Ellsworth, we had a lot of pro-life Democrats elected and helped take the House back.
And so, you know, I think over the years, we have had different levels of success in adding platform language and trying to moderate the party.
But I think right now it's just at a point where they're so just controlled by the abortion lobby and the abortion industry.
They're just not leaving much room for pro-life Democrats to have this voice.
So, I mean, once again, we are going to try to try to influence and try to move the platform back toward a more moderate position, which is more representative of Democrats as a whole, rather than this, let's pay for abortion with federal tax dollars up to nine months of pregnancy.
Let's prevent right now.
And also, the Democrats are trying to defend this position of not providing health care to a baby who survives abortion.
They know they've really gone off the deep end on this issue.
And, you know, we want to bring them back to center on it.
And so we're going to really try on this platform again to try to bring some common sense and some common ground to the platform.
I think the hard thing about abortion is it's not like a gradiated view most of the time.
You can't just be like, okay, I'm okay with like some killing.
That's the hardest thing about it.
But even like on that, you'll get the most common argument, one of the most common ones is, you know, in the case of rape and incest, oh, you just want to force abortion.
It's like, even though I still think it's murder, I'd be like, sure, let's just cut it down to that.
And that's a huge, I mean, you know, most abortions would be over, but people don't want to go there.
They don't want that gets brought up as an argument, but almost nobody makes an argument actually would make that compromise.
No, I mean, that's just one of those arguments that it accounts for such a small portion of abortions.
But then when you talk to women who did choose life, who were raped, chose life, or children who were conceived in rape and who are alive today, you know, it can influence your position on that, that it is a life and that life is worthy of given a chance to live, even though it came into this world in violence.
The life shouldn't end in violence.
So, you know, it's more consistent to say, let's see what more we can do to help the women who are experiencing these difficult pregnancies and difficult situations and try to protect that life.
So you're part of the godless Communist Party.
And I mean, how do you come, where do your pro-life convictions come from?
You know, it's interesting because a religion reporter was asking me, she wanted a good religious answer to why I'm not.
That's where we are.
Where we are.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
So people look for this good religious.
And obviously, you know, I'm a Catholic.
So I'm a Catholic convert that I've been, I was Presbyterian before.
So my whole life, I've had, you know, religion has influenced my position greatly.
But I think what influences this a lot, I mean, I would say a science.
And actually having, you know, I have had five pregnancies.
I have three children.
And so to know the value and to see those ultrasounds and also to feel the loss when one of the babies doesn't survive.
You know, so it wasn't a clump of cells.
It wasn't, you know, just something I could, like a tumor get rid of.
You know, it was when I lost the first baby, it was traumatic.
And so I think from the actual being a mother, seeing those ultrasounds and just knowing the value of that life and talking to other mothers too.
And I think people who supported abortion and then get pregnant and realize that, yes, it is a baby.
Or women who had abortions and then get pregnant again and then see the ultrasound and recognize, yes, it is a baby.
So we are doing such a great disservice to women by misleading them into thinking that it's just a clump of cells and it's a tumor we can get rid of.
So I think pointing to the science of it and the ultrasound and showing what is actually developing is so important to this convincing people that abortion is wrong.
So I'm wondering, you know, the pro-choice people often will say, well, you have no uterus, so you have no opinion.
Does that argument not work?
It doesn't really work with me.
You know, it's interesting.
Because it makes me think of when I was in Des Moines, Iowa, and I was able to ask Pete Buttigieg if he thought, I didn't ask for his position on abortion.
I just asked, do you think that there should be room in the Democratic Party for people like me who oppose abortion?
And he actually did try to use that line on me.
And he's looking directly at me.
He has one.
I'm a man, so I'll never have to make that position, that decision.
And I was thinking to myself, well, I'm a woman, so you should trust me on this.
Yeah, it was incredible.
He was saying, was he mansplaining?
Yeah, he was mansplaining to me.
He was saying, we need to just, I trust the women on this.
And he's talking to her.
It's amazing.
Yeah, the women.
Only the women who support abortion you can trust.
You can't support pro-life women like me or trust a pro-life woman like me.
Yeah, he gave you a very eloquent, very long answer that didn't answer you.
Which is perfect for a politician to do.
He's got the hang of this thing.
Yeah, but he didn't.
It was such an easy answer to, it was such an easy question.
Yeah, really.
Like, yes, we think there's room in the party for people like you.
And yes, I want your vote.
Yeah, right.
Like, sure.
He just could have ended it there.
Yeah.
And just like, yeah, you know, let's talk about the platform language.
Let's see what we can do to make room for in the big tent for people like you.
I mean, it just seemed like such an easy answer.
Yeah, we'll pay a little lip service.
Just vote for us.
I mean, it probably, I mean, it would have worked for a lot of people.
There were a lot of Democrats who liked him and wanted to support him.
But after that, no.
I really do wonder, like, if a Democrat presidential candidate, I don't know if they went hard pro-life, but if they just went, you know, maybe if they did, because I know that it's a huge issue.
And I believe, I don't know, you know what the most recent polls are for nationwide opinions on abortion?
I know there have been times where it's closer to a majority or it actually has been a majority.
Right.
It depends on how you ask the question, really.
You know, so if you ask, do you oppose abortion after 20 weeks?
It's a pretty high number, like seven in 10.
So, you know, and so it depends on what you ask.
I think the abortion rights side always asks, do you support Roe v. Wade?
Because that figure tends to go in their favor because people don't understand what Roe v. Wade would do.
It just supports like the whole buffet.
Yeah, because Roe v. Wade would, if Roe v. Wade was overturned, it would just go back to the states and the states would decide.
So it's not going to make abortion illegal.
You know, it just, it's going to go back to the states where it was before Roe v. Wade was signed, was ruled on.
So then people are confused about Roe v. Wade would do.
You know, so majority of the country do support, they support reasonable regulation restriction of abortion.
So it's a very small percentage who supports the Democratic position right now of federal funding for abortion up to nine months, like New York and Illinois have done.
Yeah.
Because I do know, I know plenty, especially when the two choices were Trump and Hillary.
I wonder how many people Hillary would have won over because there were a lot of people that are one issue voters on the right.
I mean, for them, it's on the left.
What's that?
On the left.
I said on the left.
There are a lot of one-issue voters to do.
Yeah, that's true.
I'm really curious how it shifted.
Yeah, I guess you'd lose.
I wonder what the balance would be.
I guess that's why the two sides are so divided and so polarized on it.
Yeah, she did lose some votes when she defended abortion up to nine months at the one debate.
I know a lot of the people who in our organization were very frustrated because her prior position was safe, legal, and rare.
She even said, when I say rare, I mean rare.
And that is something that pro-life Democrats can live with.
They don't like it, but at least if the party is focused on making abortion rare, like that's something we can all coalesce behind.
But now it's shifted to, you know, just legal.
And getting rid of even, I mean, this kills me is because my first job on Capitol Hill was for the chairman of the Edinburgh Labor Committee.
And he wrote the OSHA law to make factories safer for workers because his father died in a factory accident.
And so, you know, that's by entry into democratic politics and regulations.
And Democrats love regulation.
And for some reason, we don't like regulation of abortion clinics.
We tried to eliminate regulating abortion clinics.
Why do we give this car route to this one industry when in every other industry we want multiple regulations to keep people safe?
But this one we don't.
I know pretty soon you got these guys with these jars in their cars and garages full of two-headed fetuses and madden science going on.
Yeah, it just makes no sense because the Louisiana law that was just before the Supreme Court, the very ironic thing about that is it was a pro-life Democrat woman who wrote the law and a pro-life Democrat governor signed it into law.
And so you have all these conservative Republicans rallying behind these two Democrats who have who pushed for regulation.
So you have the Republicans supporting regulation and you have the Democrats opposing it, which is quite interesting.
We're funny creatures.
So what's the demographics of pro-life Democrats like?
Do they come from a certain region?
Are they a certain age, gender?
One horn in their head?
Yeah, yeah, they do.
We're all unicorns to correct.
You know, the interesting thing is it's quite diverse.
One of our first and earliest, my earliest supporters was an atheist Jew.
And then, you know, we have another, one of our board members is from San Francisco, and she's an atheist vegan.
But we have a lot of Catholics, as you can imagine.
And then, you know, in the South, we have a lot of members.
So I think we're really, but the interesting thing is we have a lot of young people who are really getting involved with Democrats for life, which is exciting.
And a lot, I mean, there are a lot of religious people who are involved as well.
But we do have, it's quite diverse, quite a diverse coalition.
You know, we had a press conference in South Carolina before the Dem debate, you know, talking about the black vote and the importance.
And there are a lot of African Americans who are pro-life and who oppose abortion.
So we're really trying to rally, you know, the black pastors to speak up in the party and push back on this issue because I think they'll be very helpful in pushing in a more moderate position within the Democratic Party.
Does that go hand in hand with, because I think the black demographic tends to be more religious.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because, I mean, one of our prominent leaders in Louisiana, Senator Katrina Jackson, she's very concerned about this issue.
And her issue is very based in her religion, her pro-life views.
Very, very, it's very strongly connected and why she's pushing so hard to end abortion.
So very brainwashed by her religion.
Yeah, yeah, she's, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, she has no fear about talking about God.
And she's really an inspiration to, I think, a lot of people because she doesn't shy away from where she stands.
And I mean, like the governor of Louisiana, too, he's pro-life and he's not going to run from it.
And I think one of our other heroes is Dan Lipinski, who sadly just lost his reelection in Illinois.
And I think that's a big loss for the pro-life movement.
But in his concession speech, one of the things he brought up is the fact that his race, it was all about abortion.
It had nothing to do with his views being a Democrat because he actually voted with the Democratic leadership, I think, 95.7% of the time when there were votes that were mixed.
So, I mean, this percentage that he didn't vote with the leadership were probably the pro-life moves.
But the abortion lobby spent at least $3 million, probably more, to defeat him and to elect a strong pro-abortion advocate to take over his seat.
And that's a huge loss.
But again, he was one that he wasn't going to change his position just to be re-elected, like so many Democrats do.
I just had an idea.
You know how Democrats often will make these commercials using like, like if they want to make a commercial about how we need to support the children more, they'll make a commercial where like the children are just like swearing and dropping F-bombs.
Or like if you want to support the women and feminism, then they just are swearing and saying the most crude things.
What if we did a commercial with a fetus that is just swearing at the camera and just dropping like every bad word?
Would that work for Democrats to come around?
I don't know.
Are you talking about how like Beto?
I'm trying to help you reach out to the Democrats because they like those commercials a lot.
Yeah, you could do Beto, the Beto quotes.
Yeah.
Beto, Beto, Beto.
Just with a swearing fetus.
Yeah, you can't come into my effing womb.
Yeah.
That's an interesting idea.
Interesting idea.
I'll run it by my people.
Yeah, you guys could get some funding together for that.
I'll help you guys write it if you need it.
All right.
I'm going to get somebody better at cussing.
So when Trump started to rise up within the Republicans, there was a lot of like, I don't know, a lot of people on the right in my experience.
And this is the people I talk with.
In Southern California.
Yeah, right, right.
And this is the people that surround me or whatever in my community.
But there was a lot of like discussion of what do we do?
Do we stay in the party and try to change it?
Do we vote for Trump?
You're Republican?
No, but these are people that are.
You got friends.
And most people that I associate with are more conservative.
Maybe not specifically Republican.
But, you know, and the question was, do we stay in the party and try to change it or do we break off and do our own thing?
And there's a lot of drama there.
And I'm wondering if, you know, with your break on a major issue with the Democratic Party, if there's similar soul searching, you know, at what point do you decide enough is enough and we're going to go do our own thing?
Or is it still best to work within the two-party system that you have?
Yeah, no, I think that we get that question a lot.
I know there is, there are a lot of suggestions to start a third party or, you know, why do you stay?
Come over to the Republicans.
And I was saying the ironic thing is, you know, we were talking to all the Democratic candidates and saying, do you want the, do you want the pro-life Democratic vote?
And ironically, the first person that came out to say that they wanted the pro-life Democrat vote was the Trump campaign.
When Mike Pence at CPAC said that he urged pro-life Democrats to come join them.
Come on over.
So it was sort of, that's a sort of interesting, interesting thing.
But I think from my perspective is, you know, I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet.
I think, you know, I just, I hear from people every day encouraging me to continue to fight and take back the party.
They're wrong on this.
And, you know, we are on the right, we're going to be on the right side of history in this.
I mean, every day we learn more about life in the womb and, you know, and the fetal development.
And every day we're saving more babies in the womb.
So we just have to stay and fight.
We have to, we can't let the abortion lobby win on this because they're just, they're wrong.
And they're harming so many women.
So many women are harmed through abortion.
And we just need to stay and fight because if we don't, it's never going to end because the Democratic Party will support abortion and the Republican Party will support life.
And you know how well those two parties get along.
You know how productive they are.
Yeah, no.
I was surprised they got this package through today.
Or did they didn't yet?
They haven't yet.
They adjourned the House before they could do anything.
But we'll see.
So what is it about the Democrat Party outside of, you know, besides the fact that they murdered gazillions of babies?
But what is it that keeps you, what makes you like them so much?
Yeah, you know, and I think the historical Democratic Party is what, you know, when I came into the Democratic Party.
Well, you mean like the KKK?
Yeah, not that early.
I'm not that old.
But thanks for that.
Totally joking with you.
You know, so I came in.
I was, I worked on the Dukakis campaign when I was in college.
And I think, you know, I do believe that the government does have a responsibility to help its people.
I think the government should spend money to help the poor.
I support regulation of businesses to keep people safer.
So I think I'm more of a traditional Democrat.
Not so much the direction the party is going right now.
But I do feel like we need to bring it back to its roots and focus on, you know, like the Hubert Humphrey era of like, let's protect those in the dawn of light.
You know, I forget the whole quote, but, you know, it was this whole consistent life ethic of not only protecting babies in the womb, but protecting the elderly and the poor and the disenfranchised.
And I think that's what drew me to the Democratic Party initially.
And, you know, we're kind of losing sight of that.
We need to get back to those traditional values.
So was there a time when the Democratic Party was, I mean, if you said it, I may have missed it when they actually were more pro-life?
Yeah, so when the pro-life issue started kind of heating up, you know, you could be whatever you wanted to be.
It didn't, you know, so they were pro-choice Republicans.
They were pro-life Democrats.
Yeah, so I think at one point there were 125 pro-life Democrats, 125 to 135, and we had a 292-seat majority in the House of Representatives.
And you see as that number has gone down, the number of Democrats has gone down as well because there are certain, particularly certain regions of the country that tend to be more pro-life and don't support this abortion extremism.
So, you know, now we're down to three in the U.S. House of Representatives and two in the Senate.
So there are different regions of the country that have more pro-life Democrats, though.
But, you know, a lot of them are pressured to change their position or not vote their conscience on this issue, which, again, is problematic for me.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just crazy what's been reframed as the new norm for the Democratic Party.
You know, when you were just watching the debates and how many people supported abortion up to the moment of birth and the couple of candidates who didn't were painted as the extremes or the fringe.
And it's so crazy how fast that happened to me.
Yeah, it did happen very quickly.
And I mean, Joe Biden was the biggest disappointment to me when he came out and changed his position on Hyde.
And at the last debate, he apologized for not supporting, I mean, for supporting a limits to taxpayers paying for abortion.
He actually apologized for his prior position, which was such a huge disappointment because I think he could have reached pro-life Democrats.
And, you know, like this personally pro-life and not voting that way is just unacceptable.
I'm like, what other issue would you do that on?
Like, name an issue where you'd be personally opposed to something and you wouldn't vote that way.
You know, let's take gun control.
You personally don't think anyone should have a gun, but then you're going to vote against any gun restrictions whatsoever.
Would you do that?
No, you vote your conscience on issues and you represent your people.
So, I mean, because Tim Kaine was another one, he was pro-life.
And we actually worked with him to pass the choose life license plate in Virginia when he was governor.
And then as soon as he was picked to run as Hillary Clinton's running mate, he flip-flopped and said, well, he's still personally pro-life, but he's not going to vote that way, which just makes no sense.
Wow.
These politicians are frustrating at times.
Yeah, it's a cop-out.
It's almost like they're just trying to get votes.
Yeah, where's your backbone?
So are you going to vote for Joe Biden?
Put her on the spot.
Well, so I could just tell you, as an organization, we will not endorse Joe Biden.
We only endorse people who are pro-life and Democrats.
Yeah, that sounds frustrating.
Yeah.
So wait till 2024, though, we're going to have a candidate in 2024.
That's what we're building up toward.
Interesting.
So do you have some optimism over where this is going to go?
I mean, you've been talking about the science and how every day we get more evidence that this is a human life.
Are you optimistic about where this is going to go?
I've heard people say, you know, in 50 years, we're going to look back and we won't be able to believe that everybody bought this.
Yeah.
No, I absolutely believe that.
Because, I mean, when you just see, I mean, just see how far we've come in the last 10 years.
You know, and we're doing for even for Spina Bifida, they're doing ineutorial surgery.
Right.
You know, and babies are being, they're able to survive earlier and earlier.
And so the science is amazing and the strides they're making to protect and save human life is just really, really incredible.
So yeah, I think we will look back at this and see that we were wrong as a party, really supporting this industry, this corporation, when normally we don't put corporations over people.
Even with this debate that we're having over helping people who are out of work right now, the Democrats are saying, well, we shouldn't give more to corporations.
You know, so I wonder what they would say.
Well, should we give millions of dollars to the abortion industry right now or should we give it to people?
That would be a good question to ask.
I love what they're saying even more is they're going, hey, you want to get your economy back and then all these old people are going to die.
You can't just kill people out of convenience.
Who would even think of doing that?
A psycho?
And then they're like, meanwhile, just meanwhile, some good news, though, is Louisiana shut down their abortion clinics.
Thank you, Governor John Bell Edwards, who is a pro-life Democrat.
Nice.
So they did shut down the abortion clinics.
And I know a couple other states did as well.
Maryland did as well, as non-essential.
So I'm curious, what can we do as Republicans and Democrats?
It feels like you're over in this caged area that we can't really get to.
We're over in our caged area, even though we're kind of weirdly like, I don't think either of us voted last election.
We were a little, Kyle doesn't vote anyway, but I was just freaked out with the whole Trump thing.
I was never more ready to apprehensively attempt doing a Democrat vote last election.
But the insanity of the two sides, I didn't vote at all.
And then the left got so crazy after that I actually moved back.
I didn't go full right, but I mean, I just like, but I was so disillusioned by Trump coming in.
I was never more like ready to be like, you know, evangelized to by the by Democrats.
Yeah, they blew it.
They blew it back.
Yeah, they did.
They blew it.
They blew it.
They really did.
Because, I mean, they lost a lot of Democrats.
The Democrats don't realize that they did.
Oh, yeah.
The Hillary thing in Bernie, the Bernie divide is very intense.
You know, and I think labor played a big part in that as well.
Again, you know, I'm from Michigan, so, you know, so there's a, the labor contingent was really put off by Hillary Clinton.
And, you know, President Trump went to Michigan.
He went to Wisconsin and he lobbed, I mean, he campaigned for the vote from labor.
And he, I think what got him, what got him the labor vote was he went in and said, I'm going to overturn NAFTA.
And so that's why he got the blue wall because of the NAFTA.
I actually predicted he would win.
My husband thought I was crazy.
I'm like, no, I think he's going to win because he's going to get the blue wall.
I didn't say the blue wall technically, but I said the labor vote is going to go Trump because I was working on Capitol Hill during NAFTA.
And I think one day I fielded 800 calls against NAFTA from the labor groups and from the men and women.
Because, I mean, so many jobs were lost when NAFTA was signed into law in Michigan.
It just decimated the economy there.
And we all know Flint, Michigan now because of the water crisis there.
And so, yeah, I think Democrats lost the labor vote.
They still have the labor unions and the leadership, but the labor vote is going to be a problem, I think, this election cycle too.
So to finish my question, I want to make sure I get to it, was because I always forget my questions when I'm going to ask them.
I want to ask, what can we do?
We're both in our little caged off areas.
How do we join forces on this one issue?
Even though our two parties are going to work against us on it, how do we join forces?
Care Bears.
Yeah, I think there's lots of ways we can work together.
I think, well, number one, we came together to support Louisiana with the regulating abortion clinics and making sure that the doctors who were performing abortions are actually qualified to do so.
And then they also have hospital admitting privileges.
Because in Louisiana, they had an ophthalmologist and a radiologist performing abortions in Louisiana because they didn't have to abide by the same laws as other doctors.
So I think that's one area, you know, continue to support the regulation of abortion clinics.
Two, I think we can be a little creative.
And I know I went to a briefing of Anka Trump is really pushing the paid leave.
And I think that's something we can, we should be able to find, work together on.
I know a lot of businesses don't support, especially small businesses, are concerned about enforcing paid leave among the small businesses.
But let's come up with creative ways because most of the women who choose abortion are poor and hourly workers.
So they can't really afford to lose their jobs and take care of their families.
So when they are faced with a pregnancy, the abortion clinic is going to say, here's your answer.
So we need to provide a better answer.
So paid leave, let's figure out some way to find an agreement on that.
I know there's a bipartisan bill in the Senate that we can look at.
And also, I think one of the other areas is addressing late-term abortion.
And some of the late-term abortions are because women have pre-existing conditions, not pre-existing conditions, but prenatal diagnosis.
And we want to look at expanding the availability of perinatal hospice to, because a lot of women are told that they should abort their children when there's a more peaceful alternative in perinatal hospice, which the nurses, you just have to train the nurses to set up a program where they have support to carry the child to term or as far as they can.
And then the child's delivered.
And the family gets to hold the baby and they take pictures, the footprints, the whole deal.
And it's a more peaceful way of addressing a baby with a health issue.
So, I mean, that's another area that we can all come together on.
You've mentioned kind of the abortion lobby and how it bullies Democrats.
How do they do that?
I mean, is it cash?
Is it wheeling and dealing in back rooms?
And how have they controlled the narrative there?
Yeah, so you look at, I can give you two examples.
One, both of them didn't end well for Democrat, well, for pro-life Democrats.
But the one, Dan Lipinski, as I said, in Illinois.
So the last election cycle, the abortion lobby spent, I think, $4 million or more to try to unseat him.
He won, but then they came back again.
So it's just the money.
Because I was out there in Chicago, just, I think it was last weekend.
Was it last weekend or the weekend before?
And the ads that were on there just distorting his record, saying that he opposes health care.
He supports abortion and he, you know, and just totally distorting his record, just the money that they spent against him to defeat him.
So money is the thing.
But also, so when you look at another race, Heath Mellow, he was running for mayor of Omaha.
So why would the abortion lobby need to get involved in this race at all?
And they did.
Bernie Sanders, I don't know if you remember this, Bernie Sanders came out and endorsed him.
And he actually went and did a campaign rally for Heath Mellow, who is a pro-life Democrat.
The abortion lobby went nuts.
They descended on Omaha.
And they were just like just bullying him, you know, just protesting outside his office, you know, following around.
And finally, they bullied him so much that he said, okay, you know, I won't vote that way once I'm in office.
Guess what happened to him?
He lost.
Because it's not, I mean, it wasn't a clear indication that the Democrat would win, but because he was pro-life, that added a better opportunity for him to win.
And when they forced him to switch, he ended up losing.
So he lost to a Republican or he lost to a Republican.
He did.
He lost to a Republican.
And unfortunately, Dan Lipinski's seat is a solid Democrat seat.
So it's going to stay in Democratic hands.
Unfortunately, it's going to be a really crazy abortion rights Democrat.
I pray for that district.
Have you ever had your leg bit by an abortion advocate?
Because they're very aggressive.
No, they are, but yeah, they are pretty aggressive.
I did actually have at the women's march, that first women's march after President Trump won, I went down with my pro-life for the whole life sign because this was supposed to be about women's empowerment and our ability to, you know, to be who we're women.
We have, we're thinking.
We can think on our own.
We can make decisions.
We're pretty smart.
And so I had my pro-life for the whole life sign.
Those are controversial opinions in the Republican Party.
Yeah, so when I was on my way out, though, this woman, she basically, I was in my car and I was just trying to leave.
And she started like banging on my car and trying to get other people to sort of attack my car.
And I just wanted to get out of there and go home.
And she called the policeman came over and she was claiming that I was driving breaklessly and I tried to hit her.
Oh, geez.
And she was yelling at me.
She's like, how many abortions have you had?
And how many kids have you adopted?
And just was just like brutal, brutal.
So I have not been back to the women's march since then.
But so I was not bit, but I was almost attacked.
Bite your leg.
Yeah, you got to watch out when you go through neighborhoods with a lot of abortion advocates.
They'll just come running down.
If you're riding your bike, they'll start biting your leg.
It's crazy.
I'll be careful.
Yeah, watch that.
Did you wear a pink hat?
No.
No, I did not.
Bummer.
Do you have any involvement in any of the advocacy for adoption and things like other options?
I've always been curious, what are ways people can get involved in that side of things?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
I think, well, one of the things I'm very supportive of my local pregnancy center, the Hope Center, in Falls Church, Virginia.
And they do amazing work of providing women with the support.
They actually just had a diaper drive-through where women could, they distributed something like 2,400 diapers to women with young children who needed diapers this last weekend.
So I think supporting the pregnancy centers and the great work that they do and giving women real options and choice.
And also adoption is a really incredible gift that women can give to other families who do want to have children who can't.
So we're very supportive of adoption.
I think the big problem we face right now is the cost.
It's super expensive to adopt children and how can we bring down that cost to make it easier for families to adopt children.
I know John Bell Edwards is governor of Louisiana.
He's my hero.
I know I keep bringing him up, but he's pretty incredible because he is pro-life for the whole life.
And he's really focused on foster care in Louisiana and helping children find permanent homes and getting children out of foster care, which is another really pro-life thing that we can do.
If we're looking for Republicans and Democrats working together, let's bring down the cost of adoption.
Let's try to find permanent homes for kids in foster care and loving homes.
And the Church of God in Christ is another good partner that we can look to because they actually put together a program where in their church community, they're trying to place children in permanent homes.
And they also just recently adopted a pro-life platform saying that they're against abortion.
So they're another good partner to look at and try to work with and helping children.
Yeah, it's interesting.
You know, we're asking what we can do.
And, you know, a lot of the things you're saying are apolitical, you know, or they're not done within the political system necessarily.
I'm wondering if it's a both and approach.
We need to approach it from a political perspective and find what things we can work together and create an alliance on.
And then there's also things we can do outside of it where if we have a consistent pro-life ethic, we are adopting and we are helping pregnancy centers from our own pocket and our own activism and stuff.
So I wonder if you see it that way too, if it's a both and.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Because some of the work that these pregnancy centers do are just, I mean, incredible.
You know, I think over the past probably 10 years, there have been a lot more of these centers, the pro-life women healthcare centers popping up.
And I just can't say enough good things about the work they do.
So there's one, one of the first ones that really was established was the Stanton Healthcare in Idaho, I think it is.
Brandy Swindle is the head of it.
And she created this center, pro-life women, pro-women healthcare clinic.
And they provide free health care for women.
And then they provide a holistic approach to childcare.
They have a yoga studio.
You can get your hair cut.
And it's kind of like this holistic approach to if a woman's in a crisis pregnancy, saying, we're here to support you.
Abortion is not the only answer, and we can help you.
And there's so many good centers out there that do offer that option of hope.
There's one in Philadelphia that came and spoke at our conference.
And, you know, they provide housing, housing to women in crisis pregnancy and help them find permanent housing and job and the ability to support their child.
And when she was telling the story about the women they helped, she said, you know, the woman said, you know, this is the first time that I've ever felt loved, you know, at this, in this moment of crisis.
So I think, yeah, these centers are just, they're the heroes on the ground, and they will change the hearts and minds of people just by the work they do, if people give them a chance.
And then where can people find you, Kristen, if they want to follow you and the work that you are doing?
Sure.
Our website is www.democratsforlife.org.
The four is spelled out.
I'm at Pro-Life Dem on Twitter.
So I'm easy to find there, Pro-Life Dem.
And we're on Facebook, Democrats for Life.
You can find us there as well on Instagram, Democrats for Life.
Great.
All right.
And life is spelled L-I-F-E, not L-Y-F-E, like they do in the hood.
Just making sure.
Nice.
Just making sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, thanks for coming on.
Yeah, thanks so much.
Sure.
Thanks.
Maybe I'll check in with you again sometime.
Yeah, absolutely.
Been a pleasure.
All right.
Same to you.
Okay.
Bye.
Bye.
Coming up next for Babylon Bee subscribers.
That's great.
Yeah.
I know in California, we had some law that they were trying to pass where they had to advertise for abortions at the pro-life clinics.
Wow.
Because it's so weird somebody has super animal rights, but then they're like, oh, yeah, kill fetuses all day long.
But don't harm that eagle egg.
The government puts all sorts of limits on things.
You don't like, you can't get a tattoo until you're 18.
You can't smoke until you're 21.
You can't drink until you're 21.
Yeah, you shouldn't be able to get an abortion.
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