UPDATE x1: A SBA List representative disagrees with Illinois Review's original headline "National Pro-life group calls for Pro-lifers to pull Democrat ballots in IL's 3rd CD: " … [W]ith all due respect, your title misrepresents what SBA List is doing. As our press release states, "The group of 70 canvassers, which includes SBA List staff and students from nearby universities, plans to visit each of17,000 pro-life Democrat households twice in the final five days of the race. SBA List is not asking pro-lifers in CD-3 to choose between Republican and Democrat ballots. SBA List is simply telling Democrats who are already pulling a Democrat ballot to vote for Lipinski, not Newman."
Illinois Review added the word "Democrat" to clarify SBA List's intentions. Our apologies for the error.
WASHINGTON DC – Pro-lifers in Illinois' 3rd CD will have a tough choice to make next Tuesday. Will they pull a Republican primary ballot and vote for Jeanne Ives for governor or will they pull a Democrat ballot and vote for the only pro-lifer on that party's primary ballot – Congressman Dan Lipinski?
The Washington D.C.-based Susan B. Anthony List is very concerned that Lipinski remains in the U.S. Congress. The group has 70 people knocking on 17,000 doors this weekend in the 3rd CD, supporting Congressman Lipinski.
SBA List's spokesperson Mallory Quigley explained:
“In 2010, dozens of so-called ‘pro-life’ Democrats –the Stupak coalition – betrayed the pro-life movement and their own principles in caving to pressure from national Democratic leadership to vote for Obamacare, the largest expansion of abortion on demand since Roe. Congressman Dan Lipinski was the lone exception. Now, he’s not just a pro-life vote in Congress, he is the only Democrat truly championing the unborn and their mothers at the national level," Quigley wrote in an email.
SBA List worked closely with Rep. Lipinski as well as his former colleagues during the Obamacare fight and told him they would always have his back politically for standing firm.
"Now, he’s being targeted by his own party for his pro-life leadership. We have a moral obligation to defend our friend Congressman Lipinski and are proud to do so against an abortion extremist backed by Planned Parenthood and NARAL. It is critical to the future of the Pro-life Movement in America that we have advocates on both sides of the aisle in Congress," she wrote.
As to whether their efforts to promote Lipinski in the Democrat primary could take away from Republican pro-life candidate Jeanne Ives in the statewide IL GOP gubernatorial primary, Quigley said the group's primary mission from D.C. is federal offices.
“SBA List’s primary mission is at the federal level. We are also proud to have endorsed Jeanne Ives, a champion for unborn children and their mothers, in the gubernatorial primary. This is the only statewide primary in which we are involved.”
SBA List's press release sent out Thursday:
The group of 70 canvassers, which includes SBA List staff and students from nearby universities, plans to visit each of 17,000 pro-life Democrat households twice in the final five days of the race. The GOTV effort is part of a six-figure campaign that includes digital ads and voter contact mail.
“Dan Lipinski is one of the few remaining pro-life Democrats in Congress, and he has shown extraordinary courage,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “He stood firm against Obamacare’s expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion under intense pressure from party leaders to give in.
“Now Lipinski is under attack for his pro-life convictions again, with a primary challenger backed by the radical abortion lobby. That’s why SBA List is going all in for Lipinski. 25 percent of rank-and-file Democrats self-identify as pro-life and several national polls have found that as many as 51 percent of Democrats support limiting abortion after five months – more than halfway through pregnancy. Our field team is reaching out to 17,000 of these voters, working to educate them about the vital importance of this election and mobilize them to get to the polls on Tuesday. Principled pro-life heroes of Dan Lipinski’s caliber in both major parties deserve the enthusiastic support of the pro-life grassroots.”
Lipinski is co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and the lead co-sponsor of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. He was a speaker at the 2018 Chicago March for Life.
SBA List’s field team is already on the ground in four 2018 Senate battleground states, with plans to expand, reaching out to low-turnout pro-life voters as well as Democratic women and Hispanics to educate them on their Senator’s record on life. Since July 2017, more than 300 canvassers have knocked on half a million doors across Ohio, Missouri, Florida, and Indiana.
