Building a Culture of Life

Editor's note. The following are the remarks of President Bush in his video shown to the NRLC Convention in St. Louis.

Thank you all very much.

I am pleased to be included in the National Right to Life annual convention. All of you gathered in St. Louis have my gratitude and support for your efforts to build a culture of life.

Since 1973, you have been working to uphold the self-evident truth of our Declaration of Independence that all are created equal, endowed by God with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In our time, respect for the right to life calls us to defend the sick and dying, those with disabilities and birth defects, and all who are weak and vulnerable. And it also calls our nation to set a great goal: that unborn children will be welcomed in life and protected in law.

You and I share a commitment to create a more compassionate society that defends life and we are making progress. As President I have signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, opposed the destruction of embryos for stem-cell research, and refused to spend taxpayer money on international programs that promote abortion overseas. My administration will challenge any state law that permits physician-assisted suicide.

There are many ways we can seek common ground and promote a culture of life. We are supporting abstinence education and crisis pregnancy programs and parental notification laws. We are offering compassionate alternatives to abortion by promoting adoption and extending state health coverage for unborn children. I urge the United States Congress to get the bill banning partial-birth abortion to my desk right away so that I can sign it and end this abhorrent procedure. I also ask the Congress to ban all human cloning. Human beings are not research material to be used in cruel and reckless experiments and all human life should never be used as a tool or as a means to an end.

The National Right to Life Committee has labored for 30 years to protect the weakest among us and to remind America of its bedrock principles. Our nation is a better place because of your commitment. And I will continue to stand with you as we work toward the day when every American child is born into a family that loves that child and in a nation that protects that child. May God Bless You and May God Continue to Bless America.

President George W. Bush