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While growing up in Detroit as one of 12 children, I learned quite a few lessons. The most important of which was that no matter our differences, we were stronger when we stuck together. My siblings and I were and are a diverse group, all over the map politically, spiritually and culturally. And yet, despite our manifest differences, we have always been there for one another, in celebration as well as in sadness and tragedy.

I have tried to apply that very important lesson personally, professionally and politically. And, as a Democrat who is committed to looking out for the weakest among us, for preserving and protecting life from conception to natural death, I was saddened when I heard the news that organizers of the Womens March in Washington had chosen to sideline Democratic women like me who take a different approach to the life issue.

Those of us who are committed to preserving the dignity of every human life face our greatest challenge yet in the person of Donald Trump. His assault on that very dignity that we as Democrats claim to hold so dear, as well as his reliance on alternative facts, is deeply concerning. Now more than ever, we need each other. We need to stick together. Like my family, we may not all agree on everything, but we do agree on most things.

I and the other 23 million pro-life leaning Democrats nationwide are asking to not be kicked out of the tent. We have significant battles ahead of us, and we need each other in order to succeed. I implore you, please do not become the type of single-issue person that you criticize many Republicans of being. As Democrats, we preach tolerance and co-existence. Should that not extend to Democrats such as myself who believe the unborn to be the most vulnerable among us? If not, arent we as guilty of the same hypocrisy of which we accuse those on the other side of the aisle who claim for themselves the mantle of pro-life but who embrace a political ideology which is indifferent to the poor, minorities and immigrants?

My late father, a proud World War II veteran, school board president and lifelong Democrat, told me that he was a Democrat because that was the party which fought for the weakest and most vulnerable in society. I do not expect everyone in my party to share my exact views. But please allow me the freedom to have them. In return, I pledge to respect those who have their own particular views on any number of issues. This is how it should be. If we are to be successful in effectively resisting the current assault on our values, if we are to be successful at winning back those Democratic voters who abandoned us this past November, we have to challenge ourselves on what it means to be part of the Democratic family. We need to realize that we need each other despite our differences.

Lori K. Hamann lives in South Bend.

The rest is here:
Viewpoint: Make room for pro-life Democrats - South Bend Tribune