Breaking: Three Four Republican presidential candidates sign Personhood Pledge
UPDATE 12/15, 6p: Rick Perry became the fourth Republican candidate to sign the pledge today.
12/14, 12:04p: Personhood USA announced this morning that three Republican presidential contenders have signed its Personhood Pledge.
Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum have all signed the pledge, which states:
I stand with President Ronald Reagan in supporting “the unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception until natural death,” and with the Republican Party platform in affirming that I “support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and endorse legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment protections apply to unborn children.”
Good for them. This is significant forward movement on the political front, particularly on Gingrich’s part, who less than one month ago told ABC’s Jake Tapper life begins at “implantation, and successful implantation.”
President Reagan made that statement in his remarkable 1988 Personhood Proclamation.
And the most recent (2008) Republican Platform indeed supported a constitutional amendment that would protect human beings from the moment of conception.
Personhood USA presented its pledge to candidates on December 9. So far none have declined, but the aforementioned three quickly signed on.
The Susan B. Anthony List also requested a pro-life pledge of Republican presidential candidates.
But SBA List’s pledge did not seek to define terms. It asked candidates to agree to nominate only nonactivist U.S. and federal court judges, appoint only pro-lifers to cabinet and executive branch positions, advance pro-life legislation to end taxpayer funding of abortion and defund Planned Parenthood, and sign the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
So far five current Republican presidential candidates – Bachmann, Gingrich, Ron Paul, Santorum, and Rick Perry – have signed Susan B. Anthony List’s pledge. Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney have not.
Former governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee actively supported Mississippi’s personhood ballot initiative.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Re: Newt Gingrich: (*sigh*) Well… we can hope, at any rate.
Ron Paul! :)
Ron Paul has thus far refused to sign but it sounds like there may be a 4th signer
to be announced tomorrow!
Did Ron Paul say why he wouldn’t sign it? At any rate, Ron Paul has endorsed stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction over abortion. This would as a practical matter annul Roe v. Wade. This is a law that could be passed by a simple majority vote in Congress and doesn’t require a constitutional amendment. The pledge that Paul was asked to sign is a little strange in that in asks for the endorsement of a law that would ONLY “make clear that 14th amendment protections apply to unborn children.” Why pass a law that only gives a legal opinion about the meaning of the 14th amendment? Why not pass a real law under the 14th amendment that actually protects children? There is less here than meets the eye.
Update: Ron Paul has also signed the pledge. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/12/26/ron-paul-joins-gop-candidates-in-signing-pro-life-pledge/