Ronald Reagan Draws Praise From Pro-Life Leaders
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 6, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leaders of numerous pro-life organizations praised President Ronald Reagan the day after his death and said he has a strong pro-life legacy that will forever earn respect from the pro-life community.
"Today, we mourn the loss of one of the great champions of the pro-life movement," said Dr. Wanda Franz, president of the National Right to Life Committee.
"His stalwart opposition to abortion was grounded in compassion and love — both for the mother and her unborn child," Franz explained. "He was an ever-faithful friend to the pro-life movement."
In 1997, National Right to Life honored President Reagan with a tribute at the 4th annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner, which has celebrated the contributions of leading pro-life figures in sports, business and government.
One of the key pro-life accomplishments credited to President Reagan was the creation of the Mexico City Policy.
Announced at an international conference on population, it prevented U.S. taxpayer funds from going to groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries. The pro-life law has been credited with saving untold thousands of lives of unborn children.
"As the nation mourns the death of a great American, it is fitting that those who work for a Culture of Life rededicate and redouble their efforts to restore full legal protection for all human life, from its earliest stages to its last moments," Nikolas Nikas, general counsel for Americans United for Life, told LifeNews.com.
"We should recall the words of President Reagan who eloquently observed that ‘[we] cannot diminish the category of one human life — the unborn — without diminishing the value of all human life,’" Nikas said.
"I loved President Reagan as a man and admired him as a leader," Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson added. "May we never forget the contributions this great man made to this nation."
Focus on the Family President Don Hodel, who served as Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Energy under Reagan, said if an adviser tried to persuade Reagan by discussing the electoral implications of a decision, the president was quick to cut him off by saying, "You’re talking politics. I want to know what you think is right!"
According to an unscientific poll on America Online, of more than 150,000 people who responded, 70 percent said that Reagan was one of the best presidents in American history. Some 20 percent of those taking the poll said he was average and only 10 percent said he was one of the worst.
"President Reagan’s pro-life legacy will live on in the policies that he established and which have been followed by subsequent pro-life presidents," NRLC’s Franz concluded. "He will be greatly missed by the pro-life movement."
