WASHINGTON -- Gary Bauer, former Republican presidential candidate and Campaign for Working Families Chairman, today underscored the urgent need for the Republican Party to maintain its strongly pro-life platform in a news conference on Capitol Hill.
"The Republican Party should boldly and proudly say the obvious: That human life is a precious endowment," said Bauer. "It has measureless value because every individual, at every stage of development and every state of consciousness is known and loved by God. This is both the source of human dignity and the basis for human equality.
"Our Founding Fathers understood this well. That is why in the 2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence they crafted 35 words that are the central idea of America 'We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.'
"My Party should be unambiguous about the preeminent civil rights issue of this new millennium, about whether all of our children - born and unborn, rich and poor, black and white - should be welcomed into the world and protected by the law.
"Unapologetic and uncompromising respect for human life is a fundamental tenet of the Republican platform. It is also the foundational principle for the human community, enabling all Americans to live together in security and harmony.
"Unborn children should be rightly counted as our fellow Americans, deserving of full Constitutional protection. There are some in our party who regard these children as strangers, casting them out beyond our protection. Surely this is not a position worthy of a great political party, a party that has consistently said that all human life is precious.
"The Republican Party's platform must be a reflection of the better angels of our nature. It must reflect not only who we are, but also what our vision of America must be for the rest of 2000, and beyond," said Bauer. |
