Posted on 07/23/2008 3:49:56 AM PDT by rhema
Thank you for inviting me to address the 2008 National Right to Life Convention, I'm sorry I'm not able to be there in person to address you.
More than two-hundred years ago our nation's founders declared, that we are endowed by our Creator, with certain and unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was no accident, that they cited life as the first, and most basic right.
For without recognition of the right to life, we are not guaranteed any other rights. Sometimes all wisdom asks of us, is that we recognize common-sense. But sometimes wisdom, as to all other virtues requires courage.
Wisdom suggests that we should be willing to give an unborn child the same chance that our parents gave us. But it takes courage in this political climate, to insist on the protection of unborn children, who can't vote, have no voice, and can't reward you with support and donations.
Wisdom suggests that when federal judges impose their social views on the citizens of every state, the result is going to distort our politics in harmful ways. But it takes courage to insist, that the courts have to return to their proper role.
I will look for accomplished men and women, with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment, to strictly interpreting the Constitution of the United States. I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Sam Alito, my friend the late William Rehnquist, jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference. I have been pro-life, my entire public career.
I am pro-life, because I know what it is like, to live without human rights, where human life is accorded no inherent value. And I know that I have a personal obligation to advocate human rights wherever they are denied, in Bosnia or Burma, in Cuba or the Middle East, and in our own country, when we fail to respect the inherent dignity of all human life, born or unborn.
That is a personal testament, which you need not take on faith. You need only to examine my public record, to know that I won't change my position. I've been proud to serve our great country in the military and in Congress.
Throughout these years I have always believed that the most important duty of our national leaders is to protect human life. We protect human life from violent extremists, who would destroy it to produce a cruel ideology. We protect the lives of the most vulnerable, whether they are the unborn, the elderly, or the disabled. It is a privilege to defend Americans in war and in peace.
I'm proud to stand with you in defending the sanctity of human life, and in supporting mothers and children, under the most challenging of circumstances.
I'm proud of my wife Cindy, who brought our daughter Bridget home from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, and blessed our family with the gift of this blessed child of god. I am as thankful for her, as I am for all of my children, and am glad that we were able to give her a home, and a better life.
My friends we confront a difficult question when we address the issue of abortion, the American people are compassionate people, who cherish life and liberty. They love life, and they have an instinctive compassion for those who confront difficult circumstances.
We believe that the best way to respond to such situations is to demonstrate our love and support for the mothers and children, who are at the center of such challenges. The pro-life movement has done this for decades by participating in and supporting thousands of pregnancy care centers, that help women and their children meet these challenges.
In November, the American people will choose a new president to lead our country during very challenging times. I will proudly defend my record of protecting human life during key debates on domestic and international policy. I am proud to have supported a ban on partial-birth abortion, and legislation that would protect children who survived an abortion procedure.
On the very first day, after the Supreme Court upheld the ban on the hideous practice of partial-birth abortion, a bill was introduced in Congress to codify this practice in every state in the United States of America.
The same legislation would strike down the Hyde amendment, named after our great friend and champion of human life, the incomparable Henry Hyde, and would also strike down every other federal and state limitation on abortion funding. This legislation, with has been co-sponsored by my opponent, would also strike down every parental notification law enacted anywhere in our country.
The American people have come together, to say that partial-birth abortion offends our national conscience, that taxpayers should not be forced to pay for elective abortions, and that states should be allowed to enact parental notification laws.
Those who oppose these protections of human life, unable to prevail in legislatures, hope to appoint to the federal courts jurists who would reject this political consensus, and would impose on us abortion policies that offend the conscience of very many Americans.
My friends, I want to thank you again, for your commitment to a cause that is greater than us all, protecting human life, and women and children, wherever they need our support.
May God bless America, and your unselfish efforts, on behalf of all his children
Wonder why he phoned it in? Hmmmmmm. I bet Barak doesn't phone it in to NAACP.
There is no excuse for McCain to not be there. No excuse. He must not want to offend his Hillary voters and independents.
McCain may only be 90% with us on this issue, but Obama is an absolute ZERO on this. Obama may actually be below zero for his support of allow the killing of babies after birth.
This article is about McCain, not Obama. I am aware of where Obama stands.
McCain worries me on this issue. He doesn’t appear to want to deal with this issue in public.
I’ve saw McCain at a Wisconsin rally. He does bring up the issue. We must insure we have judges who agree.
So comparing Obama and McCain on this issue is not allowed on this thread??? I apologize for violating your rule on this.
This is one issue that he could get conservative support for. Yet.....he chooses not to make it well known.
I really do not believe it is an issue Mc
Cain will deal with. I feel sorry for people that think McCain wil put up a SCOTUS nominee who is pro life and actually get that appointment passed by the Democrats.
Democrats worship abortion.
There is no excuse for McCain to not be there. No excuse. He must not want to offend his Hillary voters and independents.
Cut the guy some slack. At least we have someone who is pro life running! I read the speech and it was really well done.
NRTL seems not to have been miffed. Its president writes about those who are, though:
WHEN COMMON SENSE IS LACKING
BY Wanda Franz, Ph.D.
Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, the New York Republican, was first elected in 1980. He was reelected in 1986 and in 1992. Senator D’Amato managed to do this in liberal New York in spite of a solid pro-life record in the Senate: he voted pro-life 85 times on 89 roll calls.
When Senator D’Amato stood for reelection in 1998, he ran into opposition from some pro-lifers who considered him not pro-life enough or disliked him. Some misguided pro-lifers actively worked against him, others simply refused to vote for him in the general election—it was a matter of "principle," and Senator D’Amato didn’t match their notion of a pro-life candidate.
Senator D’Amato lost to a Democrat who had previously been in the House of Representatives where he (1) was a shrill promoter of abortion, (2) co-sponsored the infamous "Freedom of Choice Act" that would have established abortion on demand under a federal law, (3) co-sponsored the "Reproductive Health Equity Act" that would have required federal funding of all abortions in any federal program, and (4) had voted 97 out of 100 times for the pro-abortion side. In other words, the Democratic candidate was the "ideal" pro-abortion candidate. And his pro-abortion zeal was gratingly expressed: as one senator observed, "There is no more dangerous place than between Senator Schumer and a TV camera." Yes, we are talking about the very same Senator Chuck Schumer who now proudly basks in the glory of having organized the Democratic takeover of the Senate in the 2006 election. . . .
"bless America"? while we endlessly sacrifice our future, slaughtering our blessings? None of us take this seriously enough.
Nothing can sustain American productivity better than the investment of life for our future producers. There are selfish arguments aginst abortion. But no one ever makes them. Those babies are our economy, our security and our culture in twenty years so much more so than those new oil wells are our gasoline in ten. May God have mercy on America and save us from ourselves.
It should have been done by him in person. He sure had time for Lulac, LaRaza, and the Hillary girls.
I read what was said. What has that to do with McCain not being there in person?
Seems like it should be as important as LaRaza.
LOL, true.
If McCain had been there, they would have just accused him of pandering. So anything McCain does is never good enough.
I don’t really wish this, but I wish that *they* could somehow get 8 years of Barry and Ma pelosi and Harry the body Reid, just so they can suffer for their principles like they are in such a hurry to do.
And I have it figured out as to why they do.
Two undeniable truths about "liberalism":
1) Liberalism is at its core, the belief in the use of force to make the responsible and innocent pay for the consequences of the irresponsible.
2) Liberals support NO freedoms unrelated to consequence-free sexual behavior.
Combine these two core beliefs, and you get
the MOST innocent human paying for, with its very life, the irresponsible sexual behavior decisions of others.
Obama is definitely in the MINUS category on this issue having LED a legislative effort to allow infanticide.
Wonder why he phoned it in? Hmmmmmm. I bet Barak doesn’t phone it in to NAACP. by don-o
{Oh,..don-o, And what would BHO’s message be? “faith & hope that we can afford to place an abortorium in every public highschool?”}
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