A Democratic congressional candidate called for attendees at a progressivist conference to exercise "cultural power" by proudly touting past abortions, and urged post-abortive women in the audience to stand and be recognized, LifeSiteNews.com reports. Darcy Burner, who is running for a seat in the House of Representatives for Washington state's first district, was the opening speaker for an afternoon session of Netroots Nation, a convention for liberal activists held this past week in Rhode Island. The session was titled "The War on Women" and the theme of Burner's talk was "Going on the Offense." She said, "If you are a woman in this room -- and statistically this is true for about one-third of the women in this room -- if you're a woman in this room who has had an abortion and is willing to come out about it, please stand up." Conservative blogger Melissa Clouthier, who was in attendance, said the number of women who stood was "difficult to estimate" but that they were "sprinkled throughout the room." Burner went on to say, "We can exercise cultural power and have women come out of the closet, cast off the shame and the embarrassment that the Right would like to put upon us, and stand up tall for the choices that we make."
