By time, Ronald Reagan was elected as the 40th President of the United states, he was decidedly against the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade. In particular, he disagreed with the key ruling that the unborn is not a constitutional "person". By this ruling, the court explicitly declared that the fourteenth amendment does not apply to the unborn, because the word 'person' does not include the unborn. The fourteenth amendment guarantees that no person born in the United States can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law. Aside from allowing abortion, the decision meant that an unborn child or fetus was denied rights and protection from the police and insulated state agents from reckless or abusive actions that resulted in physical injuries to the unborn. One of the more famous cases resulting in the lack of this protection was that of Chantrienes Barker who in 1998, while in a Wayne county jail went into labor and her screams of labor pains were ignored by the guards. When Chantrienes delivered her baby girl, Chelsie, she suffered from lack of oxygen resulting in brain damage. Mrs. Barker sought damages from the county, but the county dismissed the lawsuit, saying that under the Roe v. Wade, the jail officers were not liable for damages done just moments before the child was born. The case never made it to court, but after six years Wayne County settled for $6 million.
Fifteen years earlier, on the tenth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Ronald Reagan wrote an article in "the Human Life Review" entitled 'Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation'. In the article, President Reagan took the time to pause and reflect on the "nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy" that "was neither voted for by our people nor enacted by our legislators". It was decreed by a single decision of the Supreme Court in 1973. President Reagan argued that nowhere in the constitution did it guarantee a right to 'abortion-on-demand', and that no serious scholar would argue that the framer's of our constitution intended it to be a right. Nevertheless, that is what the court ruled. In the article, Reagan wrote that during the first two years of his administration, he responded to what he called an "urgent moral crisis" and worked closely with Congress to turn the tide of abortions but has been blocked by massive efforts "under the banner of 'freedom of choice'".
Reagan framed the issue in a way that he thought people would understand. He explained that when we talk about abortion, "we are talking about two lives—the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child. Why else do we call a pregnant woman a mother?" Reagan pointed to modern medicine that treats the unborn child as a patient, and recent medical breakthroughs for treating the unborn "for genetic problems, vitamin deficiencies, irregular heart rhythms, and other medical condition". For Reagan, the question was not whether the unborn was a human life, but rather, "What is the value of human life?"
President Reagan believed that the American people and the nation had not rejected the sanctity of life but had not had their opportunity to express their views on it. In his first two years in office, he worked closely with Congress to introduce bills that would begin to restore the sanctity of Life of the unborn. The first, was the Human Life Bill introduced by Senator Jesse Helms that recognized the unborn not only as human beings, but also as persons protected by our Constitution. The second bill was the Respect Human Life Act sponsored by Congressman Henry Hyde and Senator Roger Jepsen to prohibit the federal government from performing abortions or assisting unless to save the life of the mother. Of special concern to Reagan, was that of late term abortions, especially when the baby survives, but then left to die of starvation, neglect or suffocation. President Reagan called this out as legalized infanticide resulting from the Roe v. Wade decision that the unborn child is not recognized under the fourteenth amendment.
President Reagan was determined to find a way to overcome what he called the "tragedy of abortion" and protect the rights of the unborn. President Reagan did not see it as restricting the freedoms of Americans, but rather as restoring the protections and rights of the unborn that every person born or naturalized in America had under the fourteenth amendment. It was a controversial issue then as it is now, but in Reagan's words "unless and until it can be proven that an unborn child is not a living human being", we should not assume that it isn't. President Reagan urged Congress in his 1984 State of the Union address to rise "above bitterness and reproach" and defend the rights of the unborn by passing the pro-life bills that he had already endorsed.
"During our first 3 years, we have joined bipartisan efforts to restore protection of the law to unborn children. Now, I know this issue is very controversial. But unless and until it can be proven that an unborn child is not a living human being, can we justify assuming without proof that it isn't? No one has yet offered such proof; indeed, all the evidence is to the contrary. We should rise above bitterness and reproach, and if Americans could come together in a spirit of understanding and helping, then we could find positive solutions to the tragedy of abortion."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-4 [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].Detroit.cbslocal.com. (2019). Lawsuit Over Birth At Wayne County Jail Settled For $8M. [online] Available at: https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/12/13/lawsuit-over-birth-at-wayne-county-jail-settled-for-8m/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
Reagan, R. (2019). Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation. [online] The Human Life Review. Available at: https://www.humanlifereview.com/abortion-and-the-conscience-of-the-nation-ronald-reagan-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-supreme-court-decision-in-roe-v-wade-is-a-good-time-for-us-to-pause-and-reflect-our-nationwide-policy-of-abortion-o/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
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