Robert Casey

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

Legal abortion will never rest easy on this nation's conscience.

However, we might oppose it, abortion is a sad feature of modern life.

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

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.

The abortion license has not brought freedom and security to women. Rather, it has ushered in a new era of irresponsibility toward women and children, one that now begins before birth.

The advocates of abortion on demand falsely assume two things: that women must suffer if the lives of unborn children are legally protected and that women can only attain equality by having the legal option of destroying their innocent offspring in the womb.

Abortion is defended today as a means of ensuring the equality and independence of women, and as a solution to the problems of single parenting, child abuse, and the feminization of poverty.

Our moral, religious, and political traditions are united in their respect for the dignity of human life.

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