Vulnerable Dem Donnelly looks to navigate abortion issue again

WASHINGTON – With the hours ticking down to a final vote on a landmark health care overhaul in March 2010, Joe Donnelly huddled with fellow antiabortion Democrats in a nondescript, musty room on the top floor of the leastdesirable House office building.

President Barack Obama was on the verge of achieving an expansion of health insurance that had eluded the last Democratic president. But one of the very reasons that Obama was so close was also the reason he might fail.

Democrats had recaptured the House in 2006 by running moderates such as Donnelly whose views on issues such as abortion were a good fit for his South Bend, Indiana-based district.

Now, Donnelly and enough other Democrats to sink the bill said they couldn’t vote for it unless they could prevent the new health care funding from being used to pay for abortion services – one of the several times throughout Donnelly’s political career that abortion would be a potentially careerending or career-boosting issue for him, especially now as he seeks re-election.

The lawmakers had agreed on a solution, announced hours before the final vote. But as has happened with Donnelly time and again on the issue of abortion, he ended up pleasing neither side.

Now, as one of the few anti-abortion Democrats left in Congress, Donnelly is again being targeted for defeat by antiabortion groups while not getting help from abortion rights advocates – despite the fact that both sides say he has been with them on more than half of their most important votes.

“Abortion is one of those issues where you’re either ‘one of us’ or you’re ‘one of them,’ ” said Deana A. Rohlinger, a sociology professor at Florida State University who has written a book about abortion politics. “So being a prolife Democrat can be problematic for not only trying to get Republican votes, but also for getting Democratic votes.”

Of the 64 House Democrats who voted in 2009 to keep the Affordable Care Act from subsidizing abortions, only 13 are left in Congress. Unlike most, Donnelly survived his 2010 re-election and was elected to the Senate in 2012 after his Republican opponent imploded after saying a pregnancy resulting from rape was intended by God.

But abortion may now be the most difficult issue for Donnelly – one of the most vulnerable senators on the ballot this year – who is trying to prove that there’s still any kind of a middle in politics in an increasingly polarized electorate.

Donnelly joined West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey as the only Senate Democrats to vote in January to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. He needs GOP votes to win re-election. But he risks alienating Democrats if he backs a nominee who might overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion.

“I am, and have been, disappointed in his continued failure to advocate for Hoosier women and families regarding issues of reproductive justice,” said Emily O’Brien of the Indiana National Organization for Women, which wants Donnelly to reject Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Anti-abortion groups, however, are also critical of Donnelly while praising GOP challenger Mike Braun, who is “100 percent pro-life” – including opposing abortion in the cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the woman. Donnelly makes exceptions in all three cases.

Betty Cockrum, the former longtime leader of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, said she understands why it’s hard for abortion rights advocates to be zealous about Donnelly, even if they would like Braun less.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund isn’t directing any of its $20 million being spent on this year’s races to Indiana, but Cockrum will stand behind Donnelly even if he votes to confirm Kavanaugh.

“We need to look at the bigger picture here … which is to avoid strengthening the anti-choice, anti-woman culture that exists in Washington, D.C., these days, and at state levels across the country,” Cockrum said.

Plus, she adds, “what politician gives you everything you want?”

GETTY IMAGES Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., says he wishes Planned Parenthood did not provide abortions. But he also wants to make sure women and families have access to basic health care and preventive services the group provides.