Stanch pro-abortion advocates stood in applause at a NARAL fundraiser for state lawmakers who fought pro-life bills at the Capitol—a move Catholic leader Jenny Kraska called “extreme.”
With plaques and honors, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado—a public policy and educational nonprofit advocating for abortion—recognized six state legislators at the fundraiser last month for defeating pro-life bills, legislation that should have drawn bipartisan support, according to Kraska, the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Church in the state.
The proposed bills, which would have banned abortions based on a baby’s sex and given medical attention to babies who survived botched abortions, were applauded by pro-abortion advocates for meeting their demise.
Kraska reacted to the awards saying it shows NARAL’s militant views for unrestricted abortion.
“When you look at NARAL and you look at what they support and don’t support, it goes to show you how extreme they truly are,” Kraska told the Denver Catholic. “To me all these awards demonstrate is how absolutely extreme NARAL is in their support of abortion on demand.”
NARAL held an annual reception and fundraiser June 29 at the Tears McFarlane House in Denver to honor “pro-choice champions for their leadership in defeating anti-choice legislation.”
These included Rep. Daniel Kagan for speaking against a bill on protecting life from conception, Rep. Joseph Salazar for fighting a ban on sex-selection abortion, Rep. Dianne Primavera for defeating a born-alive infant protection act, Rep. Su Ryden for fighting a women’s health protection act, Sen. Andy Kerr for defeating a bill concerning crimes against unborn babies, and Sen. Irene Aguilar for speaking against a women’s reproductive and health information act.
NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado executive director Karen Middleton said it’s the first year they’ve awarded six legislators since it started to honor pro-choice politicians in 2013.
She said the organization tracks the pro-choice voting record of legislators and honors them at annual events. In a previous year, two legislators were honored. With the high number of pro-life bills during the last legislative session, more legislators were honored for their defeat of the bills, she said.
Kraska said she understood the organization’s awards are a way to promote its pro-choice agenda. Yet the bills they fought received support from pro-life and pro-abortion politicians at a national and international level.
One state bill would have banned abortions based on a baby’s sex. On an international level, the practice of abortion based on sex found the rebuke of the United Nations, which in 2011 called attention to its injustice against women, especially in Asian countries where it fuels “a culture of discrimination and violence.”
State Rep. Dan Nordberg, who sponsored the bill, said, “Abortion should never be celebrated and these awards speak to just how extreme the pro-abortion lobby has become.”
Another defeated bill, titled the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, required medical attention for babies born alive after botched abortions.
“It is solving a non-existent problem,” Middleton testified against the bill in March. “The Born-Alive Infant Protection Act of federal law already states this is a situation that should not occur. There is no problem to be solved here. We do not believe this occurs here.”
Yet a similar bill found support across party lines in 2002, when the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act was passed at the federal level.
“To me it shows how out-of-touch NARAL is with American society,” Kraska said about the bills. “They’re not even willing to work on very common sense pieces of legislation.”
She said honoring politicians who fight such common sense bills at the Capitol is reprehensible.
“It’s like an episode of The Twilight Zone,” Kraska said. “When you sit in these (legislative) committee hearings and listen to what people are saying and then to think they’re being honored for that … To me, it’s somewhat disgusting.”
