President of the U.S., 1981-1989; Republican Governor (CA)
Opposed abortion, on fundamentalist grounds
One focus of the Reagan administration from the beginning was an agenda of social issues ranging from opposition to abortion to support for mandatory prayer in the public schools.
Much of the social agenda of the conservative fundamentalist supporters of the president was adopted by the executive branch, but Reagan had little success in gaining its acceptance by Congress.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Allowed abortion as CA Gov.; didn’t push pro-life as Pres.
Reagan was not as obsessive about anti-abortion legislation as he often seemed. Early in his California governorship he had signed a permissive abortion bill that has resulted in more than a million abortions. Afterward, he inaccurately blamed this
outcome on doctors, saying that they had deliberately misinterpreted the law. When Reagan ran for president, he won backing from pro-life forces by advocating a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to
save the life of the mother. Reagan’s stand was partly a product of political calculation, as was his tactic after he was elected of addressing the annual pro-life rally held in Washington by telephone so that he would not be seen with the leaders
of the movement on the evening news. While I do not doubt Reagan’s sincerity in advocating an anti-abortion amendment, he invested few political resources toward obtaining this goal.
Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to one and a half million unborn children a year. Human life legislation ending this tragedy will someday pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does.
Source: Speech in Orlando Florida
Mar 8, 1983
Abortion on demand does emotional harm
Reagan said, "Now I don't have to tell you that this puts us in opposition to, or at least out of step with, a prevailing attitude of many who have turned to a modern-day secularism."
The most disturbing evidence of this attitude was Washington's
funding of clinics that provided "birth control drugs and devices to underage girls without the knowledge of their parents." Sex was being secularized. "Are we to believe that something so sacred can be looked upon as a purely physical thing with no
potential for emotional and psychological harm?" Apparently, yes, for that cynicism extended to the womb:
"Abortion on demand" now takes the lives of up to one and a half million unborn children a year. Human life legislation ending this tragedy will
someday pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does. Unless and until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity, then its right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be protected.
As CA governor, reluctantly signed Therapeutic Abortion bill
In May 1967, the Therapeutic Abortion Bill began to take shape. It was a measure to allow pregnant women to terminate embryos prejudicial to their "physical or mental health." Reagan had to admit that he agreed with "the moral principle of self-defense."
If 100,000 California women were desperate enough to undergo illegal abortions every year, he could at least make it safer for some of them.
He signed it into law. Only as abortion became an extension of welfare, would he wish he had paid more head to
the bill's manipulative language. The very word "Therapeutic" was a medical euphemism, sanitizing essentially bloody procedures. It defined "mental health" as at-risk if a pregnant teen went out and smashed windows. In common with the more liberal laws
it was to spawn at state and federal levels, the Act ignored the feelings of fathers.
Reagan was left with a sense of guilt. "If there is a question as to whether there is life or death, the doubt should be resolved in favor of life."
