Remembering Roe: A Forgotten Warning from Ronald Reagan

Given the somber anniversary of Roe v. Wade-source of 40 million abortions since 1973-I thought I’d share an excellent but forgotten speech by President Ronald Reagan. The speechwriter was Peter Robinson, featured guest of our Reagan Lecture this year.

Reagan’s remarks, made in July 1987 to pro-life leaders, are moving to read and watch. They are prescient in light of the widening abortion abyss we face under the Obama administration and Pelosi-Reid Congress.

Reagan began with a reminder I often share with my secular-liberal friends. He told the pro-life activists: “[M]any of you, perhaps most, never dreamed of getting involved in politics. What brought you into politics was a matter of conscience, a matter of fundamental conviction.”

That point cannot be underscored enough. Few things rile me more than demands that pro-lifers-especially those motivated by their faith-keep out of politics. Quite the contrary, many did just that, quietly going to church and reading their Bibles, until one day they awoke to learn the Supreme Court had passed Roe v. Wade … and the hellacious assault was on. They entered pro-life activism reluctantly, as a reaction to what was thrust upon their culture and country. The last thing they wanted was to get involved in politics. The Death Culture came to them.

Reagan next added: “Many of you’ve been attacked for being single-issue activists or single-issue voters. But I ask: What single issue could be of greater significance?”

Agreed. For me, the life issue is my starting point, of far greater value than where a politician stands on social security or the minimum wage. Obviously, other issues matter. The right to life, however, is the first and most fundamental of rights, without which other rights are impossible. And if you, personally, are unsure when life begins, consider Reagan’s recommendation: “If there’s even a question about when human life begins, isn’t it our duty to err on the side of life?”

Reagan saw the onslaught against America’s unborn as so ferocious that he favored a “human life amendment” to the Constitution. At the time, this seemed extreme, but we’ve learned that unless amendments are attached to bill after bill-the Hyde Amendment, the Stupak Amendment-anonymous powers ensure all sorts of “unintended” consequences, including taxpayer funding of abortion.

Speaking of such funding, Reagan also acknowledged his “Mexico City policy,” which blocked U.S. taxpayer funding of international “family planning” groups. One of the first things President Obama did was rescind that policy-immediately after the March for Life last January.

Another policy Reagan highlighted in his speech was the prohibition of federal funds to finance abortions in the District of Columbia. This, too, was overturned last year, thanks to a Democratic Congress and president that rejected funding for school vouchers for poor children in Washington, DC, but supported funding for abortions for the mothers of those children.

Reagan talked more about abortion funding, and specifically “the so-called Grove City [College] legislation sponsored by Senator [Ted] Kennedy.” “This bill,” noted Reagan, “would mean that all hospitals and colleges receiving federal funds, even those with religious affiliations, would be open to lawsuits if they failed to provide abortions.” The usually affable Reagan said: “this one really touches my temperature control.”

Needless to say, all of this is extremely relevant right now, thanks to how Americans voted on November 4, 2008.

There was much more Reagan said in this speech, but I’ll close with two poignant thoughts:

“Many who turn to abortion do so in harrowing circumstances,” Reagan emphasized, including women “misled by inaccurate information.” “[W]e must remind those who disagree with us, and sometimes even ourselves, that we do not seek to condemn, we do not seek to sit in judgment…. [I]t is our duty to rise above bitterness and reproach.”

Pro-lifers must heed that call, respecting the human dignity of everyone. All victims require love and charity. On that, Reagan finished with this:

“I’d like to leave with you a quotation that means a great deal to me. These are the words of my friend, the late Terence Cardinal Cooke, of New York. ‘The gift of life, God’s special gift, is no less beautiful when it is accompanied by illness or weakness, hunger or poverty, mental or physical handicaps, loneliness or old age. Indeed, at these times, human life gains extra splendor as it requires our special care, concern, and reverence. It is in and through the weakest of human vessels that the Lord continues to reveal the power of His love.’”

Here was a warning against the pallbearers of the progressive death march, from Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger-who hoped to expunge the gene pool of “human weeds”-to the euthanasia precipice to which America is being dragged. It starts with the weakest of vessels: the infant in its mother’s womb.

Timeless words of wisdom to bear in mind this week, as America struggles to survive another year of Roe v. Wade.

No one is perfect and no President is perfect.

But Ronald Reagan was a moral giant - a Great American in every sense of that word, and one of the most inherently decent and honest men to ever hold high office.

It was a privilege to have merely been alive and seen him during his terms of Office.

God Bless you Ronald Reagan and I KNOW where you are - in the hands of God.

Timeless words of wisdom to bear in mind this week, as America struggles to survive another year of Roe v. Wade.

Unfortunately, America will easily survive another year of Roe v. Wade.

More importantly how many potential additions to our population, will not survive the year?

Who’s to say someone didn’t abort the next medical miracle, a statesman of Ronald Wilson Reagan proportions, a scientific breakthrough, of epic proportions, a Prophet of God.

Which brings me to two points. First, the aborting whims of man, are not able to, cannot, will not thwart the arrival of souls destined for birth, or I do not believe in an all powerful Creator. If one believes that the sojourn on earth is a valid and necessary part of mans journey through eternity, then it is necessary to believe in a God able to protect his own, through life’s journey to their ultimate destiny. We are children of that Father God.

Secondly, abortion, as a “basic human right” is torture, of the mind, in the extreme. One must behave like a pretzel to justify in the mind, heart, and soul, the need to kill what grows out of a personal decision to disobey the commandments of God in the case of single motherhood, or the personal selfish need to rid oneself of an inconvenient pregnancy.

Such are the whims of puny man, by bad law, justified on earth. I hardly think the same tortured legalities exist in the realm of our God. And speaking of tortured legalities, One must ask oneself how a Supreme Court was able to create a basic human right to kill what it later concluded was two people in decisions where a pregnant woman was involved in an accident or crime leading to her death.

Especially since the giver of evidence leading to the magical “right” created, has recanted the testimony she gave that lead to the creation of said “right”. One would assume the high court of the land would immediately vacate the decision that created the right, rather than sit on their laurels and allow a law based on lies and deception to continue to exist.

Abortion is heinous, evil, life changing, and by law a screaming example of man’s inhumanity, and the desire to justify for himself his disobedience to every law of God. It is only right, that those who believe otherwise choose, (interesting choice of words) to fight with all their might not to be a part of such tortured illegalities either in word or deed.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.