"Now Part of Your Important Work is to Change Minds…"
Part Two of Two

Editor's note. The following are excerpts from former Bush Chief Political Advisor Karl Rove's address to NRLC 2008.

I want to say happy Fourth of July to you. We're meeting on the 232nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I have, in my office at home, a framed copy of the Declaration that my father gave me when I was four years old. Abraham Lincoln, when he was on his way to Washington in February of 1861, stopped in Philadelphia and gave a short set of remarks in Independence Hall; and he said there, I think something that a lot of Americans--and I think everyone in the room--agrees with, he said, "I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." It's one of the two great documents of our American civic religion. Regardless of what your religious faith is, or your creed, or your race, or your gender, or your birthplace--we believe in two great documents: the Constitution, I carry a copy wherever I go, "we the people of the United States," and the Declaration of Independence, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain and unalienable rights. Among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It's great to among people who are honoring the Fourth of July and honoring the Declaration by a life of commitment to the greatest of those rights, the right of life. ...

I've gotten to know Darla [St. Martin], and Doug [Johnson], and David [O'Steen] over the last ten years and seven of those years I had an office in a very small building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you may have heard of it, the West Wing. And we worked together on a lot of important issues, and I want to thank you for all that you've done to put this president into office and to sustain him and work with him once he got into office. I think you will agree with me, this is a president who is deeply and passionately committed to the goal that you have, which is to foster a culture of life in our country. He has been forthright and clear and deliberate in his rhetoric, and he has been courageous in his actions. He has built a record of more concrete achievements on behalf of life then any president in the history of our country.

It started virtually his first day in office with the reinstitution of the Mexico City policy. He was proud to sign into law one of your greatest accomplishments, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. He was proud to not only sign into law, but then he successfully defended before the courts of the United States of America all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Then he signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and he appointed judges to the federal bench, district bench, the appellate bench, into the Supreme Court who will not interpret the law, but instead strictly apply the law as written in the Constitution; they will not legislate from the bench. We've also worked with you to advocate other majors [initiatives], which have not yet passed Congress. But by working for them, and fighting for them, and talking about them, and persuading people to support them, we'll get them. ...

Now part of your important work is to change minds. It's been patient and difficult and vital work of persuasion that you've been about and you're to be applauded for it. Because you've stuck in there good years and bad years, in successful battles and unsuccessful battles--keeping focused on the goal which is to persuade Americans to join us in protecting a culture of life. You worked to create a climate that welcomes every child into this world and protects every child in law; and that's required the life movement to be active in law, in politics, in debate, in dialogue, and in legislation. ...

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not you agree with Darla's characterization of him [pro-abortion Senator Barack Obama] as being the most pro-abortion candidate the Democrats have put forward. ... But I do know the facts of his record and his statements. I know what those are. When the Supreme Court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in Gonzales v. Carhart, Senator Obama quickly went up to the microphones and said, "I am extremely concerned that this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman's right to choose, and that the conservative Supreme Court justices will look for other opportunities to erode Roe v. Wade." I hope he's right. ...

Now, admittedly he hasn't been on the national stage all that long. He was elected to United States Senate and took the oath of office in January 2005 and he's been there, by my calculations, for about 144 days worth of business in the United States Senate. But he's got a record on abortion that's pretty big for a short period of time in a newcomer. He's a co-sponsor of the "Freedom of Choice Act," which would legalize partial-birth abortion and nullify federal and state limitations on abortion, including parental notification laws and waiting periods. He wants, by the passage of one federal law, to strike down all the good work that you've done over decades.

He opposes the Hyde Amendment, prohibiting the use of taxpayer funding of abortion through Medicare. Now this is a man who stands up and says he is going to bring Republicans and Democrats together, conservatives and liberals together, to achieve great things for the country. And if you want to bring the nation together, how can you claim to do that, if you are at the same time supporting the indefensible practice of using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion?

You can't! You cannot square that circle. You cannot do that and live up to the promise that you made to bring the country together.

He voted to block a bill requiring a doctor performing an abortion to notify the parent before performing the abortion on a child from out of state. Didn't even believe that a parent, whose child has left the state and gone to an adjoining or another state, should have the right to know what their child was doing…

He voted against an amendment to allow states to provide S-CHIP insurance for an unborn child, for a woman who was pregnant. He didn't want a children's health insurance program to be able to cover that infant--the most vulnerable among us. And this advocate of extending health care every which way he can said no, this is one instance I'm not in favor of allowing the S-CHIP program to cover an unborn child.

He voted to expand stem cell research to embryos donated from in vitro fertilization clinics regardless of the dates the stem cells were derived from the embryos; he wanted to encourage the destruction of human life for medical research. Since being elected to the Senate in 2004 he's got a zero rating from this group and a 100% rating from NARAL. That's pretty hard to do at 144 days or 145 days of Senate-conducted business.

Of course he was also in the Illinois state Senate; we ought to look at his record there. He voted against a Born-Alive Infant Protection Act in the Illinois state Senate that was similar to the federal law. ... In Illinois he voted against prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions. He wanted to make it possible for the state to fund abortions and he called for the passage of a state [embryonic] stem cell research bill.

Now I know that in this election he understands that he's got a record way out on the fringe and so he's sitting down with people just trying to convince them that he's a reasonable person, to have a dialogue with pro-life and values leaders. I understand what he's trying to do; in fact he was rather explicit about it. His campaign said we want people to understand they have nothing to fear from Obama if he were president. Well there's a difference between talk and action, and in this instance, his actions over the years are far more important than any reassuring words that he could offer in a private conversation.

He's pro-abortion and not pro-life. We saw the difference between him and his opponent in the dialogue and discussion about Supreme Court nominees. Senator Obama opposed both Justice [John] Roberts and Justice [Samuel] Alito--and John McCain voted for both Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. John McCain on abortion has received a 100% rating from this organization. He is pro-life, not only in his votes, and not only his words, but also in his personal actions. ...

[W]hat we've got to do in this election, if we believe in a culture of life, is to use every moment that we can to use those [social] networks and to use the power that we have as individuals, with people who depend on us for advice and counsel, to make the quiet and persuasive case that every child ought to be welcomed in life and protected in law. Thank you for all that you do for our cause. May God bless the United States of America.