August 23, 2023
As former President Jimmy Carter has reportedly entered hospice while both he and his wife, Rosalynn, struggle with health issues, Students for Life Action (SFLAction) sends the Carter family our thoughts and prayers. As we reminisce on his presidency during this time, we are also stunned by the divide on abortion between Carter and the modern Democratic Party. Serving our country as the 39th holder of our highest federal office, Carter expressed views on abortion which you’ll never hear from a Democrat today. Here’s an example:
On July 11, 1976, then-presidential candidate and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter appeared on the television show Meet the Press, delivering a statement on abortion that is unthinkable for the Democrat Party today. Click HERE to watch the video.
He simply said, “I will do everything I can as president to minimize the need for abortions. I think abortions are wrong.”
This view of both the immorality of abortion and the subsequent desire to limit it would be license enough today to get kicked out of the Democratic Party as Axios expressed in an article entitled “Anti-Abortion Democrats Are a Dying Breed.” After all, how dare a Democrat admit there’s anything wrong with abortion instead of constantly uplifting it?
An example of this would be present-day Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy who not fifty years after Carter isn’t even allowed to have the smallest pro-life concession, as evidenced by his recent gaffe at the Iowa State Fair. At the event, he told voters, “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life [12 weeks].”
That’s not a “radical” limit by any measure. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly all abortions take place during this time range, meaning such a federal limit would still allow for more than 93% of all abortions to take place.
Yet even this is considered too much by the Democrats. Kennedy’s campaign later walked his statements back, offering the lame excuse that the candidate had “misunderstand a question.” Instead, the campaign officials stated, “Mr. Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose. He does not support legislation banning abortion.”
Some moderately pro-life Democrats have even jumped ship, citing the extreme radicalism of the party, like former Hawaii U.S. House Representative Tulsi Gabbard who left in October 2022. Others purposefully keep their abortions views quiet, like Texas U.S. House Representative Henry Cuellar who told NPR you wouldn’t know he’s pro-life because he doesn’t “go running on abortion.”
As the abortion lobby continues to advance their agenda of abortion whenever and for whatever reason (and on the taxpayers’ dime), it is almost unbelievable that not even fifty years ago, Jimmy Carter — a prominent Democrat — told television viewers flat out that abortion was wrong.
If only there were more like him today.