Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan, while sitting as the fortieth
president of the United States, sent us this article shortly after the
tenth anniversary of Roe v. Wade; we printed it with pride in our
Spring, 1983 issue, and reprint it now, after Roe's
twentieth anniversary, just as proudly.
The 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court
decision in Roe v. Wade is a good time for us to pause and
reflect. Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine
months of pregnancy was neither voted for by our people nor enacted by our
legislators— not a single state had such unrestricted abortion before the
Supreme Court decreed it to be national policy in 1973. But the
consequences of this judicial decision are now obvious: since 1973, more
than 15 million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out by
legalized abortions. That is over ten times the number of Americans lost
in all our nation's wars.
Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the
Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the
Court's result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended
to create such a right. Shortly after the Roe v. Wade
decision, Professor John Hart Ely, now Dean of Stanford Law School, wrote
that the opinion "is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of
an obligation to try to be." Nowhere do the plain words of the
Constitution even hint at a "right" so sweeping as to permit abortion up
to the time the child is ready to be born. Yet that is what the Court
ruled.
As an act of "raw judicial power" (to use Justice White's biting phrase),
the decision by the seven-man majority in Roe v. Wade has so
far been made to stick. But the Court's decision has by no means settled
the debate. Instead, Roe v. Wade has become a continuing
prod to the conscience of the nation.
Abortion concerns not just the unborn child, it concerns every one of us.
The English poet, John Donne, wrote: ". . .
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
thee."
We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life— the
unborn—without diminishing the value of all human life. Wesaw tragic proof
of this truism last year when the Indiana courts allowed the starvation
death of "Baby Doe" in Bloomington because the child had Down's Syndrome.
Many of our fellow citizens grieve over the loss of life that has followed
Roe v. Wade. Margaret Heckler, soon after being nominated to
head the largest department of our government, Health and Human Services,
told an audience that she believed abortion to be the greatest moral
crisis facing our country today. And the revered Mother Teresa, who works
in the streets of Calcutta ministering to dying people in her world-famous
mission of mercy, has said that "the greatest misery of our time is the
generalized abortion of children."
Over the first two years of my Administration I have closely followed and
assisted efforts in Congress to reverse the tide of abortion— efforts of
Congressmen, Senators and citizens responding to an urgent moral crisis.
Regrettably, I have also seen the massive efforts of those who, under the
banner of "freedom of choice," have so far blocked every effort to reverse
nationwide abortion-on-demand.
Despite the formidable obstacles before us, we must not lose heart. This
is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court
decision that denied the value of certain human lives. The Dred Scott
decision of 1857 was not overturned in a day, or a year, or even a
decade. At first, only a minority of Americans recognized and deplored the
moral crisis brought about by denying the full humanity of our black
brothers and sisters; but that minority persisted in their vision and
finally prevailed. They did it by appealing to the hearts and minds of
their countrymen, to the truth of human dignity under God. From their
example, we know that respect for the sacred value of human life is too
deeply engrained in the hearts of our people to remain forever suppressed.
But the great majority of the American people have not yet made their
voices heard, and we cannot expect them to—any more than the public voice
arose against slavery—until the issue is clearly framed and presented.
What, then, is the real issue? I have often said that when we talk about
abortion, we are talking about two lives—the life of the mother and the
life of the unborn child. Why else do we call a pregnant woman a mother? I
have also said that anyone who doesn't feel sure whether we are talking
about a second human life should clearly give life the benefit of the
doubt. If you don't know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never
bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us
to insist on protecting the unborn.
The case against abortion does not rest here, however, for medical
practice confirms at every step the correctness of these moral
sensibilities. Modern medicine treats the unborn child as a patient.
Medical pioneers have made great breakthroughs in treating the unborn—for
genetic problems, vitamin deficiencies, irregular heart rhythms, and other
medical conditions. Who can forget George Will's moving account of the
little boy who underwent brain surgery six times during the nine weeks
before he was born? Who is the patient if not that tiny unborn
human being who can feel pain when he or she is approached by doctors who
come to kill rather than to cure?
The real question today is not when human
life begins, but, What is the value of human life? The
abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure
all its parts have been torn from its mother's body can hardly doubt
whether it is a human being. The real question for him and for all of us
is whether that tiny human life has a God-given right to be protected by
the law— the same right we have.
What more dramatic confirmation could we have of the real issue than the
Baby Doe case in Bloomington, Indiana? The death of that tiny infant tore
at the hearts of all Americans because the child was undeniably a live
human being—one lying helpless before the eyes of the doctors and the eyes
of the nation. The real issue for the courts was not whether Baby
Doe was a human being. The real issue was whether to protect the life of a
human being who had Down's Syndrome, who would probably be mentally
handicapped, but who needed a routine surgical procedure to unblock his
esophagus and allow him to eat. A doctor testified to the presiding judge
that, even with his physical problem corrected, Baby Doe would have a
"non-existent" possibility for "a minimally adequate quality of life"—in
other words, that retardation was the equivalent of a crime deserving the
death penalty. The judge let Baby Doe starve and die, and the Indiana
Supreme Court sanctioned his decision.
Federal law does not allow federally-assisted hospitals to decide that
Down's Syndrome infants are not worth treating, much less to decide to
starve them to death. Accordingly, I have directed the Departments of
Justice and HHS to apply civil rights regulations to protect handicapped
newborns. All hospitals receiving federal funds must post notices which
will clearly state that failure to feed handicapped babies is prohibited
by federal law. The basic issue is whether to value and protect the lives
of the handicapped, whether to recognize the sanctity of human life. This
is the same basic issue that underlies the question of abortion.
The 1981 Senate hearings on the beginning of human life brought out the
basic issue more clearly than ever before. The many medical and scientific
witnesses who testified disagreed on many things, but not on the
scientific evidence that the unborn child is alive, is a distinct
individual, or is a member of the human species. They did disagree over
the value question, whether to give value to a human life at its
early and most vulnerable stages of existence.
Regrettably, we live at a time when some persons do not value all
human life. They want to pick and choose which individuals have value.
Some have said that only those individuals with "consciousness of self"
are human beings. One such writer has followed this deadly logic and
concluded that "shocking as it may seem, a newly born infant is not a
human being."
A Nobel Prize winning scientist has suggested that if a handicapped child
"were not declared fully human until three days after birth, then all
parents could be allowed the choice." In other words, "quality control" to
see if newly born human beings are up to snuff.
Obviously, some influential people want to deny that every human life has
intrinsic, sacred worth. They insist that a member of the human race must
have certain qualities before they accord him or her status as a "human
being."
Events have borne out the editorial in a California medical journal which
explained thr€e years before Roe v. Wade that the social
acceptance of abortion is a "defiance of the long-held Western ethic of
intrinsic and equal value for every human life regardless of its stage,
condition, or status."
Every legislator, every doctor, and every citizen needs to recognize that
the real issue is whether to affirm and protect the sanctity of all human
life, or to embrace a social ethic where some human lives are valued and
others are not. As a nation, we must choose between the sanctity of life
ethic and the "quality of life" ethic.
I have no trouble identifying the answer our nation has always given to
this basic question, and the answer that I hope and pray it will give in
the future. American was founded by men and women who shared a vision of
the value of each and every individual. They stated this vision clearly
from the very start in the Declaration of Independence, using words that
every schoolboy and schoolgirl can recite:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We fought a terrible war to guarantee that one category of mankind— black
people in America—could not be denied the inalienable rights with which
their Creator endowed them. The great champion of the sanctity of all
human life in that day, Abraham Lincoln, gave us his assessment of the
Declaration's purpose. Speaking of the framers of that noble document, he
said
:
This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all his creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on. . . They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children and their children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages.
He warned also of the danger we would face if we closed our eyes to the
value of life in any category of human beings:
I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop. If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?
When Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio drafted the Fourteenth Amendment
to guarantee the rights of life, liberty, and property to all human
beings, he explained that all are "entitled to the protection of
American law, because its divine spirit of equality declares that all men
are created equal." He said the right guaranteed by the amendment would
therefore apply to "any human being." Justice William Brennan, writing in
another case decided only the year before Roe v. Wade,
referred to our society as one that "strongly affirms the sanctity of
life."
Another William Brennan—not the Justice—has reminded us of the terrible
consequences that can follow when a nation rejects the sanctity of life
ethic:
The cultural environment for a human holocaust is present whenever any society can be misled into defining individuals as less than human and therefore devoid of value and respect.
As a nation today, we have not rejected the sanctity of human life.
The American people have not had an opportunity to express their view on
the sanctity of human life in the unborn. I am convinced that Americans do
not want to play God with the value of human life. It is not for us to
decide who is worthy to live and who is not. Even the Supreme Court's
opinion in Roe v. Wade did not explicitly reject the
traditional American idea of intrinsic worth and value in all human life;
it simply dodged this issue.
The Congress has before it several measures
that would enable our people to reaffirm the sanctity of human life, even
the smallest and the youngest and the most defenseless. The Human Life
Bill expressly recognizes the unborn as human beings and accordingly
protects them as persons under our Constitution. This bill, first
introduced by Senator Jesse Helms, provided the vehicle for the Senate
hearings in 1981 which contributed so much to our understanding of the
real issue of abortion.
The Respect Human Life Act, just introduced in the 98th Congress, states
in its first section that the policy of the United States is "to protect
innocent life, both before and after birth." This bill, sponsored by
Congressman Henry Hyde and Senator Roger Jepsen, prohibits the federal
government from performing abortions or assisting those who do so, except
to save the life of the mother. It also addresses the pressing issue of
infanticide which, as we have seen, flows inevitably from permissive
abortion as another step in the denial of the inviolability of innocent
human life.
I have endorsed each of these measures, as well as the more difficult
route of constitutional amendment, and I will give these initiatives my
full support. Each of them, in different ways, attempts to reverse the
tragic policy of abortion-on-demand imposed by the Supreme Court ten years
ago. Each of them is a decisive way to affirm the sanctity of human life.
We must all educate ourselves to the reality of the horrors taking place.
Doctors today know that unborn children can feel a touch within the womb
and that they respond to pain. But how many Americans are aware that
abortion techniques are allowed today, in all 50 states, that burn the
skin of a baby with a salt solution, in an agonizing death that can last
for hours?
Another example: two years ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a
Sunday special supplement on "The Dreaded Complication." The "dreaded
complication" referred to in the article—the complication feared by
doctors who perform abortions—is the survival of the child despite
all the painful attacks during the abortion procedure. Some unborn
children do survive the late-term abortions the Supreme Court has
made legal. Is there any question that these victims of abortion deserve
our attention and protection? Is there any question that those who
don't survive were living human beings before they were killed?
Late-term abortions, especially when the baby survives, but is then killed
by starvation, neglect, or suffocation, show once again the link between
abortion and infanticide. The time to stop both is now. As my
Administration acts to stop infanticide, we will be fully aware of the
real issue that underlies the death of babies before and soon after birth.
Our society has, fortunately, become
sensitive to the rights and special needs of the handicapped, but I am
shocked that physical or mental handicaps of newborns are still used to
justify their extinction. This Administration has a Surgeon General, Dr.
C. Everett Koop, who has done perhaps more than any other American for
handicapped children, by pioneering surgical techniques to help them, by
speaking out on the value of their lives, and by working with them in the
context of loving families. You will not find his former patients
advocating the so-called "quality-of-life" ethic.
I know that when the true issue of infanticide is placed before the
American people, with all the facts openly aired, we will have no trouble
deciding that a mentally or physically handicapped baby has the same
intrinsic worth and right to life as the rest of us. As the New Jersey
Supreme Court said two decades ago, in a decision upholding the sanctity
of human life, "a child need not be perfect to have a worthwhile life."
Whether we are talking about pain suffered by unborn children, or about
late-term abortions, or about infanticide, we inevitably focus on the
humanity of the unborn child. Each of these issues is a potential rallying
point for the sanctity of life ethic. Once we as a nation rally around any
one of these issues to affirm the sanctity of life, we will see the
importance of affirming this principle across the board.
Malcolm Muggeridge, the English writer, goes right to the heart of the
matter: "Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or
intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some
cases the one, and in some the other." The sanctity of innocent human life
is a principle that Congress should proclaim at every opportunity.
It is possible that the Supreme Court itself
may overturn its abortion rulings. We need only recall that in Brown
v. Board of Education the court reversed its own earlier
"separate-but-equal" decision. I believe if the Supreme Court took another
look at Roe v. Wade, and considered the real issue between
the sanctity of life ethic and the quality of life ethic, it would change
its mind once again.
As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also
continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the
accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken
heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed
mothers. I recently spoke about a young pregnant woman named Victoria, who
said, "In this society we save whales, we save timber wolves and bald
eagles and Coke bottles. Yet, everyone wanted me to throw away my baby."
She has been helped by Save-a-Life, a group in Dallas, which provides a
way for unwed mothers to preserve the human life within them when they
might otherwise be tempted to resort to abortion. I think also of House of
His Creation in Catesville, Pennsylvania, where a loving couple has taken
in almost 200 young women in the past ten years. They have seen, as a fact
of life, that the girls are not better off having abortions than
saving their babies. I am also reminded of the remarkable Rossow family of
Ellington, Connecticut, who have opened their hearts and their home to
nine handicapped adopted and foster children.
The Adolescent Family Life Program, adopted by Congress at the request of
Senator Jeremiah Denton, has opened new opportunities for unwed mothers to
give their children life. We should not rest until our entire society
echoes the tone of John Powell in the dedication of his book, Abortion:
The Silent Holocaust, a dedication to every woman carrying an unwanted
child: "Please believe that you are not alone. There are many of us that
truly love you, who want to stand at your side, and help in any way we
can." And we can echo the always-practical woman of faith, Mother Teresa,
when she says, "If you don't want the little child, that unborn child,
give him to me." We have so many families in America seeking to adopt
children that the slogan "every child a wanted
child" is now the emptiest of all reasons to tolerate abortion.
I have often said we need to join in prayer to bring protection to the
unborn. Prayer and action are needed to uphold the sanctity of human life.
I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work, the work of
saving lives, "without being a soul of prayer." The famous British Member
of Parliament, William Wilberforce, prayed with his small group of
influential friends, the "Clapham Sect," for decades to see an end
to slavery in the British empire. Wilberforce led that struggle in
Parliament, unflaggingly, because he believed in the sanctity of human
life. He saw the fulfillment of his impossible dream when Parliament
outlawed slavery just before his death.
Let his faith and perseverance be our guide. We will never recognize the
true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of
others, a value of which Malcolm Muggeridge says:.
. . however low it flickers or fiercely burns, it is still a Divine
flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives ever so humane
and enlightened."
Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when
some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should
therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when
some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to
abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the
preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more
important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent
right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights
have any meaning.
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