Progressive pro-life activist challenges Biden for Democratic presidential nomination

Pro-life Democrats can now choose one of their own in the Democratic presidential primary, as well as a candidate too young to claim Social Security payments.

Former Democrats for Life President Terrisa Bukovinac, who founded Pro-Life San Francisco and more recently Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, formally threw her hat in the ring Thursday to challenge President Biden for the Democratic nomination.

The 42-year-old held a press conference in front of the abortion clinic near the White House where PAAU has repeatedly protested. Last year the group said it obtained 115 mangled fetuses, five of which appeared too old to be legally aborted under federal law, from a medical waste driver picking them at the Washington Surgi-Clinic.

Supporters held graphic images of some of the five fetuses whose abortions allegedly violated federal law. Several PAAU activists were recently convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act for an action at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, facing up to 10 years in prison.

"Have you ever thought about the trash that leaves this building?" Bukovinac told the crowd over periodic shouts from abortion-rights protesters. "I was here on trash day in March of 2022" when PAAU obtained the box of fetuses. "On the inside, on the fourth floor, [the clinic] is one of the ugliest places in our nation."

"I spent the last part of 2019 and 2020 traveling to every single Democratic debate and I organized groups there," Bukovinac told National Review, calling herself "a bit frustrated" by the lack of representation for pro-life Democrats. "I thought, ‘I just can’t go into another election without doing it myself."

She said she'll travel to early primary states Iowa, New Hampshire and possibly South Carolina, but her candidacy is primarily intended to raise money to run "explicit" advertisements featuring aborted fetuses in states where she gets on the ballot, using FCC regulations to overcome expected opposition from broadcast TV stations.

Another Democratic candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told MSNBC at the Iowa State Fair he supports a 15-week federal abortion ban before his campaign claimed he misheard the question and does not support any form of abortion ban. Reporter Ali Vitali posted the transcript, which suggests Kennedy heard the question correctly.