Reagan was not as obsessive about anti-abortion legislation as he often seemed. Early in his California governorship he had signed a permissive abortion bill that has resulted in more than a million abortions. Afterward, he inaccurately blamed this outcome on doctors, saying that they had deliberately misinterpreted the law. When Reagan ran for president, he won backing from pro-life forces by advocating a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother. Reagan’s stand was partly a product of political calculation, as was his tactic after he was elected of addressing the annual pro-life rally held in Washington by telephone so that he would not be seen with the leaders of the movement on the evening news. While I do not doubt Reagan’s sincerity in advocating an anti-abortion amendment, he invested few political resources toward obtaining this goal.
your guy=RINO...pretty funny....LOL’s on u
You know, this rewrite of history is really getting old (and got many a freeper banned in April 2007). What is it with folks that they have to trash the record of others to prop up their favored politician? You're calling Reagan a RINO? And you say he inaccurately blamed doctors? Who, in your mind, should be to blame for so distorting the intention of the law that we end up with the abomination we have today? Reagan was very clear on his position: abortion could only be justified to save a human life.
Here are some facts for you (derived from 1967 L.A. Times articles):
In 1967, a democrat state lawmaker (Beilenson) pushed to liberalize the laws for just three reasons: to allow abortion in the case of rape, incest, or where the baby might be deformed. ...Or, perhaps you should read Reagan's own words. Here are some from Reagan: A Life In Letters -- Read pages 197-198.Governor Ronald Reagan's first response was "Here's an emotional problem that has so many facets of consideration. It is not only spiritual, but also legal... when does life begin? What right does the unborn life have? What legal right? I'm not prepared to answer now."
In subsequent statements, Reagan took great exception to the portion of the law addressing the possibilty of deformity. "I am satisfied in my own mind we can morally and logically justify liberalized abortions to protect the health of a mother. I cannot justify the taking of an unborn life simply on the supposition that the baby may be born less than a perfect human being... [this kind of thing] wouldn't be much different from what Hitler tried to do."
The deformity provision was dropped shortly thereafter. The final statute permitted abortions in the case of forcible rape, incest, statutory rape if the victim was under 15 years old or if there was a "substantial risk" that continued pregnancy would "gravely impair" the "physical or mental health" of the mother.
Several months before Reagan signed the final bill, Colorado passed similar legislation (thus, California was not "the first" as some have asserted.)
October 11, 1979, Letter to Mr. Robert L. Mauro:Like McCain, all you want. But don't post garbage just to make your guy look better.Dear Mr. Mauro:
I hope you won't mind my writing you about a recent column of yours suggesting that I might be preparing to abandon my anti-abortion position and that I signed a permissive abortion bill while I was governor. I think there are things I should make plain here.
First, my position is that interrupting a pregnancy means the taking of a human life. In our Judeo-Christian tradition, that can only be done in self-defense. Therefore, I will agree to an abortion only to protect the life of the prospective mother.
Now, with regard to the permissive bill I supposedly signed, let me give you the correct history of what took place early in my term as governor. A bill was introduced that was permissive, indeed abortion on demand. Naturally, there was great controversy about this bill. The author finally sent word that he would amend his bill to anything the governor thought he could sign. Faced with this responsibility, I probably did more study and more soul searching on the subject than I had done on anything in my eight years as governor. I came to the conclusion, as I have already stated, that it could only be justified to save a human life. . . . Perhaps it was my inexperience in government, but like so many pieces of legislation, there were loopholes that I had not seen, and the thing that made the California abortion bill become somewhat permissive in nature was violation of the spirit of the legislation by the very groups who were supposed to police it. This was particularly true in the case of psychiatrists. If faced with the same problem today, I can assure you I would make sure there were no loopholes in the bill. Indeed, I have already written Congressman Hyde telling him of my support for his amendment.
Again, please rest assured there is no way I could or would change my position with regard to my opposition to the permissive abortion that is taking place throughout our land.
Sincerely,
Ronald Reagan