Roe v. Wade 30th Anniversary Remarks

Kate, thank you for the honor of letting me join you in celebrating the 30th anniversary of Roe v Wade. When I was in law school, my friends and I did talk about Roe v. Wade ... unlike some people we know.

We were proud to live in North Carolina, one of the few states where women had a choice before Roe. And then the Roe decision made many men look, for the first time, at ways the law blocked genuine equality for women. One person in that class who made me think about those questions then and almost every day in the 27 years since we met is with me here tonight, my wife, Elizabeth.

Justice Harry Blackmun, in Thornburg, explained the core principle embodied in Roe:
"... the Constitution embodies a promise that a certain private sphere of individual liberty will be kept largely beyond the reach of government. That promise extends to women as well as men."
These are powerful words - guaranteeing every woman a power only she should have - but this is much more than some grand legal principle. This is about real people, real lives, and hard choices.

Tonight, somewhere in America, a woman is wrestling with a decision faced by millions of women before her. She is drawing on lessons she has learned in life, on her religious beliefs, her sense of right and wrong, her sense of what is best for her in the situation she is in. But the important thing is that she - and she alone - has the right to make her choice.

Because of Roe and NARAL and so many of the people in this room ... tonight, she has that right. But make no mistake about it, her right is under attack. It is our responsibility to protect it.

In 1989, as a Court with growing numbers of Reagan and Bush appointees edged closer to eliminating a woman's right to choose, Justice Blackmun warned that "a chill wind blows."

The chill wind blows even harder now. It is blowing from the White House; it is blowing from the House; it is blowing from the Senate. They think that politicians and judges, in their wisdom, are better able to make this decision than the woman involved. They are wrong ... and they must be stopped.

I am energized by that chill wind. As Kate says, we must keep working to make it less and less necessary for women to face this choice. As long as I have anything to do with it, every woman who does face it will be able to make it on her own - based on her own moral and religious beliefs - without any interference from politicians or judges.

I trust the ordinary people of this country to make decisions that are fundamental to their own lives. Those decisions belong in your hands, not the government's.

And so you have my word: I will help lead the fight to pass a federal freedom of choice act that will guarantee the right to choose no matter what the Court does.

The right to choose is not just about a woman's privacy. It is also about a woman's equality and her personal dignity - her inalienable right to stand as a proud and independent equal in our society. The right to choose is an essential ingredient in the full equality of women. Until we recognize that fact - fully, finally, without any equivocation - we cannot say that we are living up to the promise of America.

That promise guarantees freedom, liberty, and justice to every man, woman, and child in America. Just as it is wrong to leave John Ashcroft in charge of protecting our freedoms and liberties, it is wrong to leave people like John Ashcroft in charge of your privacy, your dignity, your right to choose.

As you know, yesterday was the day set aside to honor Martin Luther King. It is a wonderful day. For me, as a Southerner, it is an annual reminder of the special burden we carry every day to lead on the issue of civil rights and equal rights.

It was an honor to mark that anniversary yesterday, and it is an honor to mark this one today. Tonight, we reaffirm our belief that all men and all women are created equal, and that all of us have rights that no government can take away.

Thank you very much.