Vice-Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan Stresses Pro-Life Themes

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 30, 2012   |   10:27AM   |   Washington, DC

Last night, during his speech to the Republican convention, vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan sounded pro-life themes as he talked about the respect and dignity of human life.

“Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life,” Ryan said.

“We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves,” Ryan continued.

“Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government – to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America’s founding. They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government,” the current Wisconsin congressman said.

“We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead. We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility. We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles,” he concluded. “Whatever your political party, let’s come together for the sake of our country. Join Mitt Romney and me. Let’s give this effort everything we have. Let’s see this through all the way. Let’s get this done. Thank you, and God bless.”

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

Ryan would bring a lengthy pro-life record and a passion for the pro-life view to Washington.

During the 2010 elections, Ryan told The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack, “I’m as pro-life as a person gets.”

He responded to a controversial “truce” that Mitch Daniels of Indiana had put forward saying social issues should be put on the back burner, and repudiated it.

“You’re not going to have a truce. Judges are going to come up. Issues come up, they’re unavoidable, and I’m never going to not vote pro-life,” Ryan said.

Ryan said he is equally adamant about both his conservative fiscal views as well as his position that every unborn child has the right to live.

“I write as an unswerving proponent of both free market choice and the natural right to life,” Ryan wrote in a Heritage Foundation piece called “The Cause of Life Can’t be Severed from the Cause of Freedom.” “It is unfortunate that ‘life’ and ‘choice’ were ever separated and viewed as alternatives.”

Ryan continued:  “I cannot believe any official or citizen can still defend the notion that an unborn human being has no rights that an older person is bound to respect. I do know that we cannot go on forever feigning agnosticism about who is human. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.” The freedom to choose is pointless for someone who does not have the freedom to live. So the right of “choice” of one human being cannot trump the right to “life” of another. How long can we sustain our commitment to freedom if we continue to deny the very foundation of freedom—life—for the most vulnerable human beings?”

“All conservatives should find it easy to agree that government must uphold every person’s right to make choices regarding their lives and that every person’s right to live must be secured before he or she can exercise that right of choice,” he said then.

The National Right to Life Committee, in tracking the votes Ryan has cast in Congress on important pro-life issues, has crafted a perfect 100% pro-life voting record.

This year, Ryan is 10 for 10 in pro-life voting — voting to repeal Obamacare, cut off taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood repeatedly, stopping taxpayer funding for abortions in various instances, banning sex-selection abortions, providing for pro-life conscience protections for medical professionals, and banning abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy in the nation’s capital.

In fact, in 78 votes NRLC has tracked where Ryan voted on key pro-life issues, he never voted against pro-life interests during his career in the House of Representatives. Ryan has voted to prevent taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research and to ban the horrific practice of partial-birth abortion.