On the 10th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Ronald Reagan was our president and felt compelled to address the abortion issue. By then, 15 million babies had been killed. It’s probably safe to assume that neither he nor many pro-life Americans expected us to still be engaged in this life-or-death-battle to protect life in 2008.
Ronald Reagan was the first sitting president to write so thoroughly and passionately about abortion. In 1983 he sent an essay to the Human Life Review, which also published it in a book entitled, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation. In it the President revealed his heart for the plight of unborn children.
Like millions of other Americans, Ronald Reagan was unwilling to accept the wanton slaughter of our most vulnerable citizens. Ten years after Roe, Reagan expressed the opinion of millions of Americans by writing, “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.” Further, the President realized abortion affects us all. “We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life – the unborn – without diminishing the value of all human life.”
Mr. Reagan also understood the importance of not giving up our efforts to correct this grave civil injustice and he encouraged us to stay the course. “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.”
And President Reagan recognized the core issue facing America in the abortion debate. “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.”
Ronald Reagan, being a man of God, understood our most valuable tool toward ending abortion. He said, “we need to join in prayer to bring protection to the unborn. I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work, the work of saving lives, ‘without being a soul of prayer.'”
History will remember President Reagan as instrumental in ending the cold war and causing a collapse of the communist Soviet Union. He had a passion for freedom. Mr. Reagan ended his essay on abortion by stressing the importance of extending that freedom to all. “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.”
Even though Ronald Reagan was one of our nation’s most outspoken pro-life presidents, he failed to help protect America’s unborn babies in an area where it mattered most – the US Supreme Court. He appointed Sandra Day O’Connor, who ended up supporting abortion, even the extreme and brutal partial-birth abortion procedure. But the good that Reagan did accomplish on behalf of those too tiny to defend themselves, as well as where he missed the mark, underscores the profound importance of a pro-life president to ending this modern-day holocaust.
One of President George W. Bush’s greatest legacies will be his selection of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. These appointments will impact our nation and society for generations to come.
It is commonly accepted by both sides of the abortion debate that the Court is only one justice away from reversing Roe v. Wade. Court watchers speculate that at least 2 Supreme Court appointments will be likely during the next presidential administration. If America picks a president who appoints pro-abortion justices, the legal killing of our nation’s preborn children could conceivably continue for decades.
Scores of Americans have bled and died for important causes. Many sacrificed everything for future generations. Your life or physical wellbeing is not being asked of you to help end abortion. Your only obligation between now and early November is to register to vote; find out who the pro-life candidates are and do your moral and patriotic duty to help elect them.
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