Obama and the March

Posted by Tom McFeely

Thursday, January 22, 2009 9:22 AM

Catholic students at the 2001 March for Life. (CNS)

Will President Barack Obama take any official notice of today’s March for Life in Washington, D.C.?

Given the new president’s consistent record of strong support for legal abortion, it seems unlikely he will take the opportunity to reach out to the pro-lifers who are marching on the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that made it legal in 1973.

On the other hand, it’s going to be pretty hard for him not to notice the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are marching right now on the Mall in the biggest annual demonstration in the nation’s capital, bearing witness to their love of the unborn and their determination to end the tragedy of legal abortion.

Here’s what Obama’s presidential predecessor, George W. Bush, did to mark his first March for Life as president on Jan. 22, 2001.

Bush marked the occasion by reinstating the Mexico City Policy, banning U.S. taxpayer funding of groups that promote abortion overseas, as his first act as president. The ban was instituted by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and lifted by Bill Clinton in 1993.

In a statement delivered directly to the Marchers for Life in 2001, Bush said:

“Good afternoon, friends and fellow citizens. Two days ago, Americans gathered on the Washington Mall to celebrate our Nation’s ideals. Today, you are gathered to remind our country that one of those ideals is the infinite value of every life.

“I deeply appreciate your message and your work. You see the weak and the defenseless, and you try to help them. You see the hardship of many young mothers and their unborn children, and you care for them both. In so many ways, you make our society more compassionate and welcoming. We share a great goal: to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law. We know this will not come easily, or all at once. But the goal leads us onward: to build a culture of life, affirming that every person, at every stage and season of life, is created equal in God’s image.

“The promises of our Declaration of Independence are not just for the strong, the independent, or the healthy. They are for everyone — including unborn children. We are a society with enough compassion and wealth and love to care for both mothers and their children, to seek the promise and potential in every human life.

“I believe that we are making progress toward that goal. I trust in the good hearts of Americans. I trust in the unfolding promise of our country — an expanding circle of inclusion and protection. And I trust in the civility and good sense of our citizens — a willingness to engage our differences in a spirit of tolerance and good will.

“All of you marching today have never tired in a good cause. Thank you for your conviction, your idealism, and your courage. May God bless you all.”

— Tom McFeely

Filed under march for life