When you've had great pro-life Presidents, it reminds you (a) the distance between them and pro-abortion President Barack Obama, and (b) of how much they did for the cause of life.
President George W. Bush was a great credit to our Movement, and stood tall when others would have folded. He has a new book out, "Decision Points," which I will begin reading tonight.
But like many of you, I saw his interview with NBC's Matt Lauer in which he talked for the first time about the miscarriage his mother suffered when Bush was only a teenager.
Bush tells us that he had asked his mother for permission to include what Lauer describes aptly as a poignant story" in the book, and would not have without Barbara Bush's agreement. Lauer notes it would be "impossible not to draw parallels between that moment when you said that was a little brother or sister and your views on life and when it begins."
"No question that it affected me, my philosophy, that we should respect life, Mr. Bush responds. "I was a prolife president."
The following are the paragraphs in the book that deal with this, courtesy of ABC News website, with a word of attribution or two added by ABC's Susan Donaldson James.
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"One day, shortly after I learned to drive and while dad was away on a business trip, Mother called me in to her bedroom," he writes. "There was an urgency in her voice. She told me to drive her to the hospital immediately. I asked her what was wrong, She said she would tell me in the car.
"As I pulled out of the driveway, she told me to drive steadily and avoid bumps. Then she said she had just had a miscarriage. I was taken aback. This was a subject I never expected to be discussing with Mother. I also never expected to see the remains of a fetus, which she had saved in a jar to bring to the hospital. I remember thinking: There was a human life, a little brother or sister.
"Mother checked herself in to the hospital and was taken to an exam room. I paced up and down the hallway to steady my nerves. After I passed an older woman several times, she said, 'Don't worry honey, your wife will be just fine.'
"When I was allowed into Mother's room, the doctor said she would be all right, but she needed to spend the night. I told mother what the woman had said to me in the hall. She laughed one of her great strong laughs and I went home feeling much better."
The next day, when the future president picked her up, she thanked him for being so "careful and responsible." His mother also told him not to tell anyone about the miscarriage, which she felt was a "private family matter."
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Let me make two points. First, after the Lauer interview Mr. Bush told ABC News, "I had no intention of creating a national dialogue [on miscarriages]." Yet just by scanning the Internet, you learn that it is clear that his recollection initiated a lot of conversation about just how intensely personal and tragic the unintentional loss of baby can be.
Second, even though Mr. Bush said the primary point of relaying the story in his book was to "help the reader understand why my mother and I are so close," it tells us a lot about him and has wider application to the rest of us.
We can more perfectly understand the beauty and complexity of preborn children through ultrasound. Elsewhere in the book, Mr. Bush writes,
"When I saw [his twin daughters] Barbara and Jenna on the sonogram for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that they were distinct and alive."
But in a miscarriage we are also reminded how fragile the unborn child is.
In both cases, the lesson is the same one drawn by President Bush in the very next sentence:
"The fact that they could not speak for themselves only enhanced society's duty to defend them."
Contact: Dave Andrusko
Source: NRLC
Publish Date: November 10, 2010
