The Democratic Party took a beating in 2016. After losing the White House to Donald Trump as well as numerous Congressional and state-level races, Democrats have been forced back to the drawing board to determine what changes might be necessary to prevent further losses. Some of that soul-searching was on display this week, as similar articles from The New York Times and Roll Call offered an interesting proposal: the Democratic Party must become more flexible on life issues and make a place for pro-life Americans in the party in order to come out on top again. And they may have a point.

The Democratic Party, which used to be “the party of the little guy,” is now wholly tied to the abortion industry — and primarily Planned Parenthood. It’s a lucrative relationship: Planned Parenthood garners support for Democrats, and Democrats help protect government funding for Planned Parenthood in return. This partnership is especially ironic given the attacks liberals make on the Republican Party for being owned by Corporate America and being run by the organizations that give them money, like the NRA.

So how did the Democratic Party become the abortion party? It happened when feminists adopted abortion as a tenet of their movement. While early advocates for women’s rights were staunchly pro-life, later feminists decided that the best way to empower women was to legalize their ability to kill an unborn child that shares their very DNA. In a way, it makes sense, given that a stated goal of feminism — making women equal to men — can logically be seen to involve degrading and devaluing the one unique gift women possess that men do not, which is to conceive and give birth to another human.

Democrats now brand themselves as the party of women — a mantra trumpeted increasingly often during the 2016 presidential race, as Hillary Clinton campaigned to be the nation’s first woman president. Despite their attempts to make the election all about gender, however, the results showed that women voted in this election the way that they always have — along party lines.

But the lessons from President Trump’s victory seem to have gone unheeded. Just consider January’s Women’s March on Washington for one example, where march organizers removed a pro-life group, the New Wave Feminists, from a list of the march’s sponsors after their participation became publicized. It appears abortion still remains a higher priority than women’s solidarity.

And this is just the latest example of the unprecedented degree to which the feminist movement and Democrats have effectively shut out pro-life women, losing large numbers of votes from these women in the process. As recent commentators have suggested, however, until the Democratic Party can find some measure of tolerance for pro-life views within its own coalition, this trend is only likely to continue.

Photo credit: Aleteia Image Department via Flickr, CC BY 2.0