According to the Huffington Post, Paul Ryan, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee, is doubling down on an issue that famously failed to resonate with the majority of voters.
An ardent abortion opponent, Ryan told the Susan B. Anthony List Gala on Thursday that anti-abortion activists should try to find common ground with supporters of abortion rights as a way to advance their own agenda. But opponents must provide fierce opposition to abortion rights if they want to win, he added.
Abortion opponents need 'to work with people who consider themselves pro-choice – because our task isn't to purge our ranks. It's to grow them,' Ryan said.
'We don't want a country where abortion is simply outlawed. We want a country where it isn't even considered,' he said.
Many opponents of abortion disagreed with health care reform because it requires most employers to cover birth control to female employees free of charge as a preventative service, although the law exempts churches and other houses of worship.
Ryan said anti-abortion activists should work with people of all beliefs to plant 'flags' in the law, 'small changes that raise questions about abortion.'
Ryan then outlined areas where abortion opponents could make potential legal inroads in pursuit of a total abortion ban. People who support abortion rights but oppose taxpayer funding of abortions or parental notification of minors' abortions were one area.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the the Susan B. Anthony List group's president, said they plan to target Senate seats in 2014 held by Democrats Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, both of whom support abortion rights.
Meanwhile the RNC took a unanimous vote on Friday to approve 12 resolutions, including one that reaffirms the party's opposition to same-sex marriage. Social conservative groups had threatened to form their own political party if the GOP reduces it's opposition to gay unions.
Comments