Alan Keyes
January 22, 1998

25th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade

(Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles introduced Dr. Keyes)

Alan Keyes: I was put in mind, as you were reading, Cardinal, I saw one of these movies on the plane. It's called "The Peacemaker," and it's all about one of these terrible episodes where a nuclear device is introduced into America, and the hero and heroine have to head it off. But at one point in the film, they are going over the background of a fellow from Pakistan, who had modified a nuclear device so that it could be carried in a backpack by one person. And one of the characters points out that he was Harvard-educated. And another one shoots back, "Well, most of the world's terrorists have Harvard degrees." And that line sticks in my mind, because when I show up at political events, I think this is the feeling that many people have about me. But on this particular issue they say it with a great deal of surprise, [laughter] that somebody with a Harvard degree would be trying to terrorize pro-abortion people into changing their minds.

I am wont to say, of course, as speakers always do, that they are pleased to be here. But whenever I am addressing folks in the context, particularly, of--what is the proper word? "Commemorating" or "commiserating about"--the Roe vs. Wade decision, I have to check myself. Because I would not want to give you the impression that it really pleases me to be speaking to you in this context today. In the sense, of course, that one could wish that the Supreme Court had never made the mistake of Roe vs. Wade. One could wish that, by now, the efforts that so many have made since that decision was handed down, to turn the heart of America back into its right paths and channels--we could wish that that had succeeded. Every year that we come together in order to commemorate the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade is another year we come together knowing that that perverse doctrine still stands, in some form, as the basis for American law.

Now, of course, what I come to talk about today is the difference between that decision as it represents so-called American law, and what we, in our hearts and minds, know to be the real essence of American justice. And from this we can, in fact, take heart that it does not matter for how many years we must come together in order to renew our commitment to overturning the Roe vs. Wade doctrine as American law; we come together in the knowledge that it shall never represent America's justice. For, America's justice can never countenance the destruction of the rights of the unborn. America's justice, defined since our beginning, is clear and unequivocal on the point at issue in abortion:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Not born. Not made. Not decided. Not constituted by our documents. Not somehow protected only by our courts and established in their rights and dignity. No; none of these sources are the sources of our claim to human rights and dignity. It comes, rather, from the hand of the power above all powers, of the mind beyond our mind, of the will superior to our will, the will of Almighty God, our Creator.

And this is, whether some folks like to acknowledge it or not, the real heart of the abortion controversy. I was reading the other day in, I think it was, the Washington Times newspaper. They had a story that was about the religious controversy with respect to abortion. And I read through this, and there was a quote there from one lady who was an Episcopal pastor. And she said, as I recall, "I would never refer to the fetus as a human being." And this is supposed, somehow, to be a conclusion or a statement she makes in the context of talking about the application of her religious faith--purportedly, Christianity--to this issue.

And what struck me is that it says in the Bible that God tells us that He doesn't care how many of us get together and join hands in order to oppose His will and His truth; it does not make it so. And on this issue, as on every other, this is the case. I don't care whether we would or wouldn't refer to that being in the womb as a human being. As our Founders said it, and as God knows it to be, we are not the authors of that life. It is not for us to decide about its humanity.

"Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee," the Lord God says to His prophet. We are formed in the secret places of the earth, before there was one hair on our head, before one cell of our body actually began to come into existence. We are, as it were, a manuscript which God prepares in secret; He only PUBLISHES it in the womb. It is not our right; it is not our place. And, indeed, this question of our dignity and human rights, as our Founders so clearly said, is not a matter for our decision, because God has already decided. And I don't really understand how one could settle the issue any other way if, indeed, you acknowledge, as we must, that we are creatures of God.

Now, I say "as we must," and in the present context that could be misunderstood. Some folks might think that I am standing here speaking as a Roman Catholic, which I am. Some others might say that he is speaking as a Christian, which I surely am. "That is his religious conviction; that is his religious faith." But as I think I just pointed out, it is not only my religious conviction; it is not only the consequence of my deeply-rooted faith. I stand before you, as, well, as an American--as one who looks back on a heritage in which people like myself were denied the full fruits and benefits of that American promise.

And when they fought against slavery, and when they fought for civil rights, against racial discrimination and oppression, it was ever the same banner which they raised. The banner raised by the Frederick Douglass's and the Martin Luther Kings was a banner which alluded, time and again, to those great principles of conscience which see the dignity of our humanity coming not from the law and human decision, but from the hand of God. And when I say so, I speak as an American--as a citizen determined to maintain the justice of my country.

It is, then, for the sake of this nation's very soul that we gather here today--for, Roe vs. Wade and the abortion doctrine and the whole scourge of abortion that it gives rise to not only claims the physical lives of millions of young men and women in the womb. It not only claims the material hopes for our future, which those lives represent. It threatens that being in principle which in fact is our common identity as a people.

It's interesting to me, as I listen to people speak in the past week or so in the context of Martin Luther King's holiday. So many folks get up--as, oh, for instance, Al Gore did the other day at Ebenezer Baptist Church--and we hear the ringing declamations of dedication to civil rights, and the ringing statements about how this nation has to be dedicated to being that shining example to the world of how people can come together from all races and backgrounds and creeds in this great melting pot of diversity, and yet in the midst of it all, confirm our dedication to the universal truth of our common humanity . . . it all sounds so beautiful.

But let's be frank about it. What gives reality to those hopes? What is it that makes it possible for us to aspire to be more than just a motley and coincidental conglomeration of different races and backgrounds and creeds, never able, in any true sense at all, to come together as one people, one nation, one whole great human race. What is it that makes it possible for us to hope that this dream of our humanity can, in fact, be realized--is, in fact, being realized--in this great country? What is it?

Is it the hope that we will all, forever and always, speak a common language? Well, y'all live in California; you tell me about that. Is it the hope that all our differences will fade, that our physical distinctions will disappear, that our ethnic heritages will be forgotten? Is that what makes it possible for us to hope for this?

Not only is that not what makes it possible, but most of us understand that we wouldn't want to do that; that, in fact, the fruit of our diversity is a greater wisdom, a greater and more enriched sense of the great potential of God's creation. We do not want to lose our understanding of those distinctions. At one and the same time, somehow, we know that we can look back with confidence and pride upon all those things which make us unique and different individuals, and nations, and groups--taking pride in our African background, our Hispanic background, our Chinese background, our Polish background, our Italian background--these are things which we can look back on with a sense that there too, in all those different ways, some truth was stated about our humanity that would not have been seen, but for the experiences of this people, and that people, and those people, and how they responded to all the different circumstances presented in our human condition. We do not have to be afraid of these differences.

And yet, not wanting to surrender them, how can we still live in the hope that they do not represent some permanent source of division that must give rise to tension and conflict and violence and horror, as we see in so many parts of the world?

Well, you and I--and, actually, almost everyone who has looked at it with any wisdom, in the history of this country--we know how that is possible. Because for all these differences, we are yet, because we come from the hand of one Creator, somehow in the midst of it one being, one spirit, animated by one truth. It's not a truth that you can hear with the ears. It's not an accent on the tongue. It's not a hue of skin. It's not a set of historical circumstances. In our case, I think, as a people--as an American people--it represents the acknowledgment of some simple truths, the most important of which is the truth that, for all these differences, we share one common dignity; we are measured, in the moral sense, by one great standard of worth, a standard established not by our merits, and not by our wisdom, but by the power and the wisdom of God.

This is the foundation of our hope as a people to be one nation, in spite of all these differences--strengthened, not destroyed by them, because we can see beyond it all to the truth that lies at the heart of our common humanity, a truth that we are one human race, because God is one great and almighty Creator.

And though a lot of people don't want to see it, at the heart of the abortion challenge is this question: can we hope to continue our existence as a nation, can we hope, realistically, to realize this aspiration of our common humanity, and to serve, therefore, as what we long to be--an inspiring example to all the earth of God's best hopes for His human creatures--and can we hang on to that, can we fulfill that destiny, while we embrace a doctrine that reclaims from God His authority, that denies to God His place upon the throne, and puts instead our human will, our human choice, as the bedrock of our human worth? That's what abortion is about.

Yes, it is about the difficult decisions that must be made, in what we call our "private lives," as to whether we shall accept or not the responsibility for our action. Yes, it is about the emotional pain and trauma that can be experienced, and that must be endured by folks in that situation, when they must decide, against the pull and tug of all the things in their lives, whether they shall answer the call of that great gift of life. And there is no denying it: if we are to win in this struggle, we shall have to win one person at a time, one heart at a time, willing in our own lives, and in our own families, and in our own friendships and relationships, to take responsibility for the truth, and for being those who can help one another to meet the challenges of truth.

But, you know, in addition to those things, we have to confront the fact that if we are going to be dedicated at that level of personal commitment, I think we are going to have to reckon with the fundamental choice that is involved in taking a stand on abortion. And it is very simple: "Does God exist, and did He endow us with our dignity and rights, or does He not?"

If He does, then we cannot claim that life is "our choice," to be made according to our whim. And if He doesn't, then we cannot claim that there is any basis for those rights we brag about, but for which there would no longer be any foundation if God in His power is denied His role. This is where we are.

And, you know, the consequences of that are also very practical. I always find it amusing that people talk about this issue as if it were over here in some isolated box, to be separated from other concerns that we have as a people. And there are those who would see the gathering in this room as people who have come together because they have some "special interest" in abortion. We are derided by the people in the pro-abortion movement because we are "in love with fetuses," they claim, and all this sort of stuff. Myself, I would rather be in love with fetuses than in love with evil, but hey, this is just a personal preference of mine. [laughter]

But when folks do that, I have to say, I think they make a great error. Because I don't think that there is a major problem we face as a people today where we do not see the result, in a pervasive and deep sense, of the corruption that abortion has worked upon our hearts and upon our moral judgment and consciences--everywhere we look.

It reminds me of the story in the Bible about Pharaoh, when Moses comes to him and says "let my people go." And Pharaoh resists, and you know what happens: God sends the plagues--blood and locusts and other horrors all over Egypt. Now, there are those who have been so uncharitable as to suggest, if you look around America today, we have our own list of plagues. The plague of violence in our streets; the plague of promiscuity and illegitimacy among our young; the plague of deadly diseases, ravaging our blood and destroying the lives of our young. Plague after plague after plague we see. And if we had but the eyes to see, we might realize that as each plague has come along, we have been like Pharaoh--our hearts hardened; our will hardened, to persist in that which holds our very future in bondage.

But I think our situation is even worse. Because as I have often said lately, it struck me forcibly, not long ago, that when the crunch came, God sent a plague that actually managed, at least for a minute, to break even Pharaoh's hardened heart. What was that plague? What was the plague that broke Pharaoh's heart? When God took his son.

And then I look at the situation of our people. A people, I know, who forgets it, but if we are honest with ourselves, who is Pharaoh in America? When I ask this question, people give all kinds of answers. They'll say "Bill Clinton." We will leave aside other possible reasons for distinguishing Bill Clinton from Pharaoh, and we will point out only that Pharaoh was not elected. But this, by the way, let the Egyptian people sort of off the hook for what he did.

Who is Pharaoh in America? Who answers to God, ultimately, for the sovereign choice of the ministers, for those who make the laws and shape them? Who is the fountainhead of authority? There is no sovereign that does everything himself. The sovereign is the one who decides, who chooses, who shall make and execute the law. And in America, who is that? WE ARE! We, the People of the United States: we say it with such pride in our great documents.

But along with that pride must come the responsibility for what we do, and what we are. And if America's heart is hardened, and if America's will refuses to break, it is not the will of some abstract monarch; it is rather our will, and our heart, that is hardened. And worse than Pharaoh, our heart does not harden only in the face of fleas, and break when our precious children are destroyed. Our heart is hardened to be the destroyers of our children.

Not one; not two; but tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, and millions of our sons and daughters have we destroyed, and still our heart is harder than the hardest heart in the Bible.

When are we going to see that what God was saying in all those plagues is really very simple. And as He said it to Pharaoh, so He says it to us: let the truth break your heart, and turn away from evil, or the truth shall break your lives and fill your lives with dread.

We live comfortably now, in America. Right this minute we are under the delusion that things are going well. Unemployment is down, and the economy is up, the world is reasonably at peace; we think things are okay. I've got news for you: we are on the edge of the abyss, and already millions of us have been poured into its maw. This is just a little quiet before a dreadful storm that in the 21st century could very well make the 20th, for all its horrors and holocausts, look like a dress rehearsal for evil.

For, in the 20th century, man's inhumanity to man took place in spite of the memory of conscience; in the 21st, the deeds we do shall be done because, on account of the abortion doctrine and all those other doctrines that lead us to turn our back on that which is the root of all conscience, the will of Almighty God, we shall be people without conscience, people incapable of understanding that there is a difference between good and evil. We shall worship at the altar of our violence, and we shall see the horrors we produce as somehow emblems of our success.

This is what is in store, for us and for our children and for our children's children--not the blessings of liberty, but the curses of a freedom defined apart from the will of God. It's not a pleasant thought.

Now, do I paint this gloomy picture just so that I can live up to the reputation of people with Harvard degrees as terrorists? No, I don't. I paint this picture because we human beings seem to be made in such a way that, when we think things are going well, we don't bother. Thank God He blessed us with some imagination, though, with a reason that can pre-figure the things that are to come--at least a little glimpse can be gotten of the consequences of what we do.

And I want to convey but one point here today, as clearly as I can: They are not consequences only for the innocent babes in the womb--for the death of that innocence is the death of our nation. And if we love this nation, if we love what it is supposed to represent to human hope and human possibility--if that love is more than just rhetoric that we trot out for Martin Luther King Day--then we had better come to terms with the great moral challenge that abortion represents, and restore to our lives the sense of discipline and dignity without which we cannot sustain, or even desire, our liberty.

And we do this not just for ourselves. See, because that's the beautiful thing. I think the beautiful thing about being an American, when you really think it through, is that we are not a nation like other nations that have existed in the world, capable somehow of living in our pride and hope, defining ourselves against all those other peoples that have existed.

I mean, look around you. If there is war in Bosnia, if there is oppression in Poland, if there is famine in Africa, if there is slaughter in China--we are there. We are there. Because we are Africans, and we are Chinese, and we are Poles, and we are Jews, and we are Asians, and we are Hispanics--we are a people of peoples, a nation of nations, in touch with all humanity. Coming together, as we have, in God's great providence, we can either affirm the hope that all that humanity can realize a common destiny of peace and justice, or we shall affirm the truth that because of our willfulness, and our dedication to evil, there is no hope, no common hope, that we can all share.

I believe that this better destiny of our people rides heavily on what we will decide in this generation about the abortion issue. Because I do not think we are going to decide it rightly, if we don't re-embrace the principle that will then allow us to see, quite clearly, what we must do to become better mothers and fathers, and therefore restore the strength of our families; what we must do to become better leaders for our children, and therefore restore the integrity of our educational system; what we must do to become better workers, better producers, and so in fact lay a strong foundation for an economic life that is not only fruitful, but decent and just.

All these things we care about depend, in the end, upon this: that we have the character to sustain our hopes, and our freedom. And that character--I don't think it depends on any given action; I don't think it does. See, we know, don't we, if we're honest, that we human beings--we're gonna be sinners. It's true. It's a consequence of our fallen human nature--we're liable to error. We're liable to do it time and again. But you know, there greatest failing is not in the sin, but in the rejection of that grace which allows us to see it as sin, to let the truth break our hearts so that eventually we turn away not because we fear the evil, but because we love the good, and the God who is the heart of it. That is the real foundation of character, that love of God.

And I would have to tell you that--leave aside all the politics and all the other things that we can talk about--I see no hope on this issue, I see no hope for our nation, I see no hope for our humanity, except somehow we do what He who I deeply know to be our Savior said that we must do: look not to ourselves, but to our God, as the standard of our perfection; look not to our wants, but to His will, as the guide for our choices; look not to our judgment, but rather to our love of Him, as the solid foundation for our lives, our character, our future.

I hope that in the course of this conference all of us will come together in the realization that we are brought together here not by our hatred of abortion and injustice, not by our grief and sorrow and pain only at the terrible loss of innocence, of life, of truth, that it represents. But we are brought together by this, our common willingness to surrender ourselves to our love of God. And moving forward, animated by that love, we continue in this cause, not weary and heavy-burdened, but our hearts filled with joy that in the midst of our day He has given us this opportunity to bear witness to His truth, to surrender to His love.

God bless you.