Feminists and progressives must speak out to stop the Democratic Party from becoming "Republican-lite" on women's issues and undermining its own women candidates.

Barbara Hafer is a strong advocate for reproductive rights and was the frontrunner to take on extremist Republican incumbent Rick Santorum in the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate. She has just been forced out of the race by Democratic leaders and consultants in favor of an anti-abortion candidate they recruited.

Who did top Democrats pick to run against Santorum, one of the leading anti-abortion, anti-women's rights and anti-gay senators?

Top Democrats recruited Robert P. Casey Jr., a staunch abortion opponent
in the mold of his father, the late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey Sr. You may recognize his name from the 1992 Supreme Court case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood, in which the senior Casey defended Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act, which was so extreme that the Supreme Court struck it down.

And who made sure that Hafer would not run? She was pushed out by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who previously supported Hafer, then made the call forcing her out of the race; Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who serves as the top Senate recruiter for the Democrats (as head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee); and political consultants who are already lining up with the Casey campaign.

Send a message to each of them now - and tell them what you think.

To run another anti-abortion candidate against Santorum, as the Democrats did in 2000, will result in sure defeat. Hafer has won four statewide elections in Pennsylvania and is the strongest possible challenger to Santorum. A recent Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates poll conducted on behalf of Hafer showed that 60% of Pennsylvania Democrats, 54% of Independents, and 40% of Republicans are pro-choice.

Don't mistake this for a random act -- it is a calculated effort by party leaders to build a so-called "bigger tent" at the expense of women's rights. It's happening in Rhode Island as well, where an anti-abortion candidate has been recruited by Schumer and national Democratic leaders to run against a pro-choice candidate in the party's Senate primary.

If we don't stop this losing strategy now, they'll use it again and again.

Women are the vast majority of both the voters for, and fundraising direct mail supporters of, the Democratic Party. We deserve better than this. It will do women no good if both major parties are hostile to women candidates and women's rights.

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