PAT NIXON (whose husband effected NSSM-200):
"I know a lot, but you have to keep it to yourself when you're in this position." As First Lady, Thelma "Pat" Ryan Nixon generally kept both her opinions and her activities to herself, especially where the press was concerned. That silence led many to refer to her as "Plastic Pat," a woman whose smile seemed forever fixed on a face that rarely expressed ideas or emotions.But such a nickname overlooks the strong political opinions Pat Nixon expressed on particular issues. She responded to questions about the Vietnam War without evasion, publicly supported the Equal Rights Amendment and the appointment of women to Supreme Court vacancies, believed that abortion was a "private decision,"
BETTY FORD (whose husband continued NSSM-200 as NSDM-314):
She wore a mood ring and pantsuits. She liked disco and danced the hustle. She was pro-choice, pro-ERA, and pro-women in general. She had been divorced, seen a psychiatrist, and been diagnosed with breast cancer. In many ways, Elizabeth "Betty" Bloomer Ford was like a lot of other American women.
LAURA BUSH:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Laura Bush, the wife of President-elect George W. Bush, said Friday she believes the country could do more to minimize the number of abortions, but also indicated she doesn't believe the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortions should be overturned.
"No, I don't think it should be overturned," Mrs. Bush told NBC's "Today Show" when asked about the high court's decision, Roe vs. Wade.
Nancy Reagan comes closest, of course. In fact, Reagan did attribute his turnabout on the subject to her influence. (He was the only GOP President I know of who could actually articulate a sound and compelling pro-life argument.)
Sadly, Mrs. Reagan is now so firmly entrenched in the legitimatizing of the Human Farming and harvesting of fetuses made possible only by a right to "choose" that her perhaps once pro-life views are certainly mitigated, if not completely obviated in the process.
I think that -- though her husband made a career out of losing Presidential elections -- Elizabeth Dole's stand deserves a special mention:
Finally, that same year, the wrestling was over, and she was ready to go public with her abortion views. She told Newsday in 1990 that, like then-President George Bush, "I'm pro-life," but asserted that, as labor secretary, "It wasn't an issue." Abortion didn't come up again until Dole joined her husband on the '96 campaign trail. That year, she gave a New York Post reporter her most candid remarks yet. Asked whether she supported a constitutional ban on abortion, she replied: "Yes, uh-huh. There are three exceptions [that we support]: life of the mother, rape and incest. I have been pro-life.
I think what many GOP fail to realize (beside the FACT that abortion is and always has been a GOP policy), is that this "rape/incest" provision is the linchpin keeping abortion legal.
Unless they prove themselves to be the most clever Bait 'n Switch artists politics has ever known, the FACT of the matter is that the allegedly "mildly pro-life" Republican stance which insists on certain exceptions to the sanctity of life is the bedrock of the right to choose which lives may or may not be protected under the law.