\ Fred Thompson Says Fatherhood, Not Politics or Acting, is His Biggest Role 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 16, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Fred Thompson has been an actor, attorney and a senator from Tennessee but he says his role as a father has been the biggest of his life. His comments are important given the concern pro-life advocates have about fathers and the abortion process.
Abortion wasn’t legal when Thompson, an athlete known as “Moose” among his peers, found out that his high school girlfriend was pregnant.
According to a McClatchy-Tribune News Service report, Thompson did what pro-life advocates wish al young couples would in an unplanned pregnancy situation — he married his girlfriend and they kept the baby.
After serving in the Senate for eight years, Thompson decided not to run for re-election when one of his children died after a drug overdose.
The death had a great impact on his views on assisted suicide and euthanasia and he has said he wants families, not courts or politicians, making crucial end-of-life decisions. Thompson has also indicated he would sign a bill that would make sure patients who can’t make their own medical decisions don’t have food and water taken away.
He came under fire over initial comments saying he didn’t support the Congressional legislation that allowed to Schindler family to go to federal courts to try to protect Terri’s life, but has said he supported the family.
Thompson is now the father of two children, ages 4 and 1, and their births solidified his pro-life views on abortion. He’s said that seeing their ultrasounds confirmed in his mind that life begins at conception and not some arbitrary point later.
Thompson talked with McClatchy about his role as a father. "I’ve had the worst thing that can happen to a father, and the best thing that can happen to a father," Thompson says. "I think you come out from the other end of that with a sense of what’s important and not important."
