Pat Buchanan Quotes
I'd rather be pro-life than President.
This was a variation of the famous Henry Clay quotation.
Pat Buchanan, White House Speech Writer (Republican), Candidate for Republican Presidential Nominee, Reform Party Presidential Candidate, Political Columnist, Interview, CNBC Geraldo, October 2, 1999
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In American history Abortion has been legal for more time than it has been illegal. And most of the laws prohibiting it were unconstitutional. Even the Roman Catholic Church did not take the position that life begins at conception until 1869 so the notion, far from being a long standing tradition is just the opposite.
Churches are political organizations too and are subject to the forces of their membership. In the case of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1971 they passed resolutions to assure the right of a woman to have an abortion to protect her health. The position on abortion changed steadily thereafter to even pass Constitutional amendments to ban abortions except to save the life of the mother. See {614356},54122, {614358}, {614359}, {614360}, {614361} for the dynamic history of the change.
Paul had been the Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate and in keeping with the libertarian philosophy of the party supported the right to abortion and was adamant that the Government should stay away from such issues of morality. However, in 2007, he tried to secure the Republican Presidential Nomination. At that time the religious right dominated the Republican Party and opposition to abortion was a litmus test issue. Paul flip flopped, but it did him little good. The issue of the fetus and protection of the law is not the simple issue that Paul made it out to be. Even the most ardent supporters of abortion has argued that a fetus ought to be protected both civilly and criminally in law. Where the disagreement lies is at what point in time and/or development does the fetus constitute life and deserve the protection of life and how society shall deal with the conflicting life and health interests of mother and fetus.
Patrick Joseph Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.
