Special Reports

Ben Stein

Author, Actor, Lawyer, Speechwriter, and Professor

Ben Stein:
I would not be on any other side of this issue than the side I'm on. This is the side that is pro-woman - - we try to save the lives of 700,000 women a year, and save millions more from humiliation, embarrassment, dereliction, and breast cancer. This is the side that is pro-man - - we try to save the lives of 700,000 young men a year, and try to save the fathers who are involved in the horrible decision to abort from shame, humiliation, and disaster. This is the side that is pro-freedom - - we're for the freedom of a human being to be. We are on the side against the totalitarians who say that a Jew or a Catholic does not have the right to be - - it's the same thing when you say that a baby does not have the right to be. Every baby that is conceived has the right to be; that is a basic. And I will tell you something that I never felt before in my heart until this year: I feel strongly that the tide is turning in our favor. We had a lot of years wandering in the wilderness; we had a lot of years when I felt as if the people who came to this room were the last of a dying breed. That has all changed. We owe a lot of thanks for that to Mr. Bush who has stood up unhesitatingly for life.

I do a lot of different things, but I spend most of my time traveling around the country speaking at college groups - - mostly invited there by college Republicans, but sometimes by Right-to-Life groups. And five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, if I gave the part of my speech that I always give in which I say that one of the best, most important ways to give your life meaning and to live a decent life is to value life when it's old, when it's infirm, when it's a different skin color, when it's a different race, when it's a different sex, when it's a different religion, whether it's born or unborn - - and if you value life when it's unborn, you set a standard for valuing life and for giving dignity to life that will stick with you and the society forever.

I used to get “boo-ed” when I said that. I kept saying it; for the last year I get wild applause at the campuses all over America. The tide is turning! I know that no one in this room chose this side because it was the easy side or because it was necessarily even the winning side - - but we are winning. God bless National Right to Life who carry the banner high for every human being born and unborn in this world. Thank you very, very much.

Source: http://www.nrlc.org/news/2003/NRL05/tenth_annual_proudly_pro.htm