The GOP Must Remain Pro-Life
By Representative Dave Robertson
April 17, 2009
A few months ago, NORC sponsored a panel discussion to consider the future of the Republican Party locally and nationally. In the discussion that evening and in similar discussions around the state about the core beliefs of the Republican Party, one thing is crystal clear.
The Republican Party must remain pro-life!
As an activist and a legislator, I believe in the pro-life cause and have done all I can to advance pro-life legislation in Lansing.
Human life begins at conception and is deserving of constitutional protection. Being pro-life simply means that we, as a nation, recognize this truth — that a life, once conceived is of the Highest Value. Do those who support abortion want us to believe that Thomas Jefferson’s ordering of rights in the Declaration of Independence “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is merely coincidental? Our Founders clearly believed the right to life was a prerequisite for all other rights.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v Wade, pro-abortion feminists, liberals and their friends in the media have done all they can to depict the pro-life movement in the most negative way. The most common depiction is as a male-dominated group of radical extremists, who want only for a child to be born, caring nothing about the mother or child beyond the child’s birth.
This is the most vicious of lies, and yet it is repeated as a staple of pro-abortion argument. In defense of their own misguided beliefs, the pro-abortion crowd is working hard to obscure the compassionate motivation of the pro-life community in public debate. Polling consistently demonstrates married women to be the most pro-life segment of our society and single, young men to be the least pro-life.
I have had the honor of working with members of the activist pro-life community for over 20 years. They are some of the most sincere and dedicated people anywhere. Visit any Crisis Pregnancy Center and you will find volunteers who will literally give the shirt off their back to encourage a woman to choose life. Pro-life organizations every day provide food, clothing, shelter, and transportation for any new or expectant mother who comes to them seeking help. The debate on life issues in both Washington and Lansing gets most of the public attention. However, the heart and soul of the pro-life movement are the caring men and women who save the world one mother and one baby at a time.
The Republican Party must remain a pro-life party. Preserving, protecting and defending the value of human life is the only position consistent with our founding principles. We must insist that all of our laws recognize the sacred value of human life. Taking such a position can never be wrong. As activists within the Republicans Party we must lead the debate in defense of life.
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