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United States
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March for Life
President issues a pro-life call
President George W. Bush told participants in the annual March for Life that the United States should set “a great goal—that unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.” Bush made his statement in a telephone call to pro-lifers gathered in Washington on the anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
“This march is an example of an inspiring commitment and of deep human compassion,” Bush said over a loudspeaker to the crowd gathered for the annual March for Life. “Everybody there believes, as I do, that every life is valuable, that our society has a responsibility to defend the vulnerable and weak, the imperfect, and even the unwanted.”
Bush said he supports bans on human cloning, taxpayer funding of abortion, and partial-birth abortion, while he also favors teen abstinence, crisis pregnancy programs, and parental notification laws.
Abortion supporters said that now that the White House is occupied by a pro-lifer after eight years of pro-abortion policies under former President Bill Clinton, they will focus their efforts on Congress and upcoming mid-term elections in November. “When the administration is so anti-choice, it becomes increasingly important for Congress to balance,” said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. [For another perspective on the Bush administration’s attitudes, see page 57.]