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IS there ANYTHING else valuable about the GOP platform other than pro-life?

Of course there is.

The agenda of the mainstream of the party--the people who construct the platform--is very, very wide. It covers the broad range of public policy issues which confront us. And don't kid yourself, the mainstream of the GOP is rocksolid conservative on all of those issues.

But whether you like it, or whether I like it, the abortion question is the central moral question of our time.

We as a people have always respected the priceless nature of each and every individual person who is made in the image of God. That is what separates this country from most others. We value the individual.

All you have to do is look at history to see the progression in other nations of how destruction comes on a people--first the loss of reverence for God--then the loss of respect for human life---and the last to disappear under the tyrant's boot is liberty.

Ronald Reagan:

"So I tell you there are a great many God-fearing, dedicated, noble men and women in public life, present company included. And yes, we need your help to keep us ever mindful of the ideas and the principles that brought us into the public arena in the first place. The basis of those ideals and principles is a commitment to freedom and personal liberty that, itself, is grounded in the much deeper realization that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted.

The American experiment in democracy rests on this insight. Its discovery was the great triumph of our Founding Fathers, voiced by William Penn when he said: "If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants." Explaining the inalienable rights of men, Jefferson said, "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time." And it was George Washington who said that "of all the disposition and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supporters."

And finally, that shrewdest of all observers of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, put it eloquently after he had gone on a search for the secret of America's greatness and genius - and he said: "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

Well, I'm pleased to be here today with you who are keeping America great by keeping her good. Only through your work and prayers and those of millions of others cans we hope to survive this perilous century and keep alive this experiment in liberty, this last, best hope of man."

More Ronald Reagan:

"Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to one and a half million unborn children a year. Human life legislation ending this tragedy will someday pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does. Unless and until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity, then its right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be protected."