Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1992 TAG: 9203040130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROSEMONT, ILL. LENGTH: Medium
"Let me be clear," Bush said. "I support the right to life." That was the only time his speech to the 50th annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals was interrupted by standing applause.
Bush had been invited to speak to the convention every year since he became president, but this was the first time he accepted, said Donald Brown, spokesman for the group. The White House said the speech was non-political - meaning the trip was paid for by the taxpayers.
There was little different in this speech from the ones Bush has made on the campaign. "Tonight our children and grandchildren will go to their beds untroubled by the fears of nuclear holocaust that haunted two generations of Americans," he said.
He said he has kept choice of child care with parents and out of the hands of government bureaucrats and has appointed judges "who punish criminals, not honest cops trying to do their jobs."
Bush praised the values of faith and family and said "we must add the infinitely precious value of life itself."
He told the evangelicals that he has vetoed six bills that would have allowed federal funding of abortions but "now we have yet another fight."
Congress will begin hearings today on a "Freedom of Choice Act," which would establish the right to abortion by federal statute. Pro-choice advocates favor such a law to pre-empt a possible overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.
The legislation, said Bush, would block state laws that require parents be told about abortions being performed on their daughters and override state laws restricting sex-selection abortions.
"This is not right," said Bush. "It will not become law as long as I am president of the United States."
by CNB