CHICAGO (LifeSiteNews) – A pro-life Democrat has promised to make Chicago safer for babies and families.
With less than two weeks to go in the hotly contested Democratic primary for Illinois’s 1st Congressional District seat, Pastor Chris Butler has risen to prominence for being the only candidate to proclaim unapologetically pro-life and pro-family views.
“I don’t think life should be a left or right issue—I think it is a right or wrong issue,” said Butler, speaking about abortion in an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews’ Jim Hale. “The values that I have I learned in my own community, in the church where I grew up, you know, talking to my mother and my grandmother. These are the values that were instilled in me in the community.”
Butler has garnered national attention for these community values, particularly since they are at odds with the pro-abortion tenets of Democrat party’s official platform. While his Democrat credentials have been called into question by both conservative pundits and pro-abortion radicals alike, Butler maintains that his pro-life stance is not so much about altering the party, but about returning to the party’s former foundations.
“The roots of my family, and the roots of my community, go deep in the Democratic Party,” Butler elaborated. “I think that it would be a disregard of that legacy to be just pushed out of the party instead of just trying to reclaim a rightful position in that party.”
He added: “We have a long legacy of … pro-life people in the Democratic Party, much longer than the period of time since the mid-90s where there’s been this focused effort to push pro-life folks out … And when I had to think about what to do in this race, I thought it was very important to reclaim this space inside this party.”
Butler’s pro-life stance has earned him significant endorsements at both the community and national level. The pro-life political action committee Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List is one of them.
“As a strongly pro-life Democrat in a party increasingly hostile to values shared by most Americans, Pastor Chris Butler is a profile in courage and we are proud to endorse him for Congress,” said Hon. Marilyn Musgrave, SBA List’s vice president of government affairs, in a recent press release.
“Far too many Democratic politicians in Washington have lost their way, pushing to enshrine abortion on demand through birth with no limits, paid for by taxpayers, in national law – an agenda millions of rank-and-file Democrats in ‘blue’ states and districts nationwide reject.”
Musgrave continued: “If members don’t toe the line on this divisive platform, they risk being kicked out. But Pastor Chris understands protecting children in the womb from lethal violence is about human rights and should not be a partisan issue. His voice and perspective are sorely needed. He will be a champion of the vulnerable and the marginalized, standing with both unborn children and their mothers. We urge Illinoisans to support Pastor Chris as he seeks to bring common sense back to Congress and the Democratic Party.”
The pastor is also keenly aware of the dangers facing people out of the womb in his district. Because he has been outspoken in his pledge to support police in their efforts to keep Chicago and its suburbs safe, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police has endorsed his candidacy.
Describing his pro-family, pro-safety vision for Chicago, Butler concluded, “I want this to be a place where people come to build families and not to destroy life.”