Robert Casey

Tolerance is the price we pay for living in a free, pluralistic society.

Any man who has ever tried to use political power for the common good has felt an awful sense of powerlessness.

The abortion issue has intersected with my public life from the very beginning.

Abortion is a question of choice.

We have had virtually unlimited access to abortion for nearly twenty years. Yet during that same period, more and more women and children have slipped into poverty.

Advocates of unrestricted abortion do not want the public to focus on these undeniable facts of fetal development, but the facts cannot be ignored.

From the beginning, each human embryo has its own unique genetic identity.

If our country is to reach a workable solution to the abortion issue, the Democratic party must be open to and tolerant of opposing views.

Indeed, an entire generation of Americans has grown to adulthood since the Roe decision of 1973, which held that the right to choose an abortion was a privacy right protected by our Constitution.

My strong personal view, which I believe is shared by millions of Americans, is that our party should make a strong statement in its platform that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which should be protected.

Our party has always been the voice of the powerless and the voiceless.

Abortion on demand has, in my judgment, contributed significantly to an environment in our country in which life has become very cheap.

I come to urge my party to be open to debate and discussion; to move away from a lock-step litmus test which advocates abortion on demand in an effort to reach a broader national consensus.

Whose rights will we acknowledge? Whose human dignity will we respect? For whose well-being will we, as a people, assume responsibility?

As I discovered, even the governor of a major state who holds pro-life views can be denied a hearing at his party's convention without the national media protesting it.

Who belongs to the community of the commonly protected?

Abortion is the ultimate violence.

Today, the growing economic and social pressures in our country are putting millions of women, children and families at increased risk of abuse and neglect, especially when families are denied basic support services and economic opportunity.

We must make children and families a national priority.

In short, our response as a party should be to work to solve the crises that produce crisis pregnancies, and work to make life worth living for mother and child, rather than victimize the child as a way of dealing with the crisis.