While the economy, medical programs and Iraq were the main features of president George Bush’s State of the Union message Tuesday night, two sentences perked up the ears of pro-lifers hoping that at least some reference would be made to the unborn, when Bush said he wished to see a ban on partial birth abortion and a total ban on human cloning.
Both proposals got loud applause although the usual pro-abort Democrats remained glum, unconvinced and seated. A Chicago Tribune story by Mike Tackett says, “One proposal elicited a visibly disdainful response from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Democrat leader of the House, perhaps foreshadowing a more aggressive approach that their party will take on Bush proposals. The Democrats, who now seem to understand the price they have paid for timidity, have decided to try to strip Bush of some of his September 11 armor. The word of the night on the party cue cards for talking about the President seemed to be ‘he failed.’ That did not deter Bush. He didn’t back away from his support to ban a procedure critics call, ‘partial birth abortion’.”
But in neither Chicago paper did we see any reference to the president’s call for a law banning the cloning of human beings. It was made immediately following the call to end partial birth abortion.
Democrat Presidential Candidates Embrace Abortion
Among those in the audience probably most upset by talk of defending a single unborn child, were some of the announced candidates for the presidential nomination on the Democrat ticket, the six senators, representatives and other politicians who were honored last week at a National Abortion Rights Action League rally in Washington D.C. For the record, here are some of their pro-abortion statements at that rally:
Senator John Edwards of North Carolina said about pro lifers who try to help a woman decide to keep her baby, “They are wrong. They are wrong. They are wrong.” Our comment: Edwards is wrong. He also promised the group that he would work for a federal freedom of choice law.
Senator Joe Lieberman claimed that abortion is an American tradition and called himself “pro values, pro faith, pro family and pro choice.”
Congressman Richard Gephardt, former house Democratic leader, had been pro-life when he went to Congress and even sponsored a constitutional amendment to make abortion illegal. But he said his change of heart sprang from hearing many stories from women who needed control of their own destinies. He bragged that at least his conversion had been a gradual process. Actually he switched when he decided to run for president in 1988.
Al Sharpton, a Pentecostal minister from New York, said that when a protester told him that a real Christian couldn’t support abortion he retorted. “It is time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.” Sharpton was born to a single mother who obviously was not as pro abortion as her minister son. Then he added, oddly, “I trust my mama’s decision more than I trust anyone who sits in the White House tonight.” Remember the old pro life chant, “Did your mama kill you? No. No.”
Former Vermont governor and physician, Howard Dean, said some pregnant teenagers who say their fathers will kill them if they find out they are pregnant are telling the truth, so he is for abortion. Dean, a doctor, went on and on until he had conservatives taking away a woman’s right to attend school.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts called abortion a fundamental right and said if abortion became illegal half the people in the nation would lose their freedom.
Troublesome Billy
An article in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune by Kathleen Parker discusses designer babies and how the time is coming when parents will be able to pick and choose the kind of child they want and that they will be able to eliminate what a USA Today article called “Troublesome Billy,” the boy who likes to play with toy guns, and pull his sister’s pigtails. Parker says Troublesome Billy is the kind of boy she likes, and fears that when we start getting rid of the Troublesome Billy by designing only sweet, low key obedient little boys and girls, we will also be getting rid of the Albert Einsteins and the Martin Luther Kings.
