no violence period: New Perspectives on Abortion

 
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A Consistent Life Ethic

· Nat Hentoff on Abortion
· Abortion and the American Left

Abortion and the Media

Roe v. Wade

 
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Abortion and the Media

Governor Bob Casey

Robert Patrick Casey (1932-2000) was, in the words of Nat Hentoff, "arguably the most liberal and efficient Democratic governor in the nation. Casey put millions of dollars into job training, helping over 330,000 people, most of them single mothers, out of welfare into solid jobs. And according to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a much respected pediatrician and professor, Casey's prenatal and child health care programs were 'a model for the rest of the country.' Moreover, despite a time of recession, he consistently increased state funding for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program while Republicans elsewhere were cutting it. Casey also increased funds for home care for the elderly."

 

Life of the Party

By Nat Hentoff, The New Republic, June 19, 2000

Robert Casey, who died on May 30 at age 68, was a Democrat fiercely committed to his party's tradition of protecting society's most vulnerable. And, for that, his party made him a pariah.

The Democrats' Tiny Tent: The Siberian exile of a former governor with one of the party's most effective records.

Nat Hentoff, September 10, 1996

With this year's "open" Democratic convention again closed to him, Casey delivered an address in Chicago anyway. In heretic Casey's unofficial speech, his pro-life argument contained the same analogy that Jesse Jackson used to make when he was the most compelling anti-abortion speaker in the country. Twice in American history, said Casey, the law "excluded an entire class of people from their most sacred human rights." The first was the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision when blacks, slave or free, were told they were property, with no rights of their own. The second time, Casey continued, was Roe vs. Wade: "An entire class of human beings was excluded from the protection of the law, their fate declared a private matter."

Protesters Silence Anti-Abortion Talk

The New York Times, October 3, 1992

Knots of demonstrators in Cooper Union college's Great Hall, where Abraham Lincoln spoke on slavery in 1860, prevented Governor Casey from delivering his speech, "Can a Liberal Be Pro-Life?", co-sponsored by The Village Voice and Cooper Union. David Schneiderman, publisher of The Voice, said it was The Voice's first attempt to sponsor such an event, "and I think it's my last."

Here come the wild creatures

John Leo, U.S. News & World Report, October 19, 1992

As Nat Hentoff pointed out in the Village Voice, Casey was not just banned. He was rather graphically humiliated by the abortion lobby. One of his political enemies, a woman who had fought many of his programs in Pennsylvania, was brought onstage at the convention and pointedly honored as a "Republican for Choice."

Gov. Casey Silenced -- Again

Nat Hentoff, October 24, 1992

Democratic Gov. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania was to deliver the speech the Democratic Party would not allow him to make at its "unified" convention... A preening array of hooligans made all speech except their own inaudible. They reminded me of the domestic brown shirts breaking up Jewish meetings in my youth. At least 80 percent of the audience wanted to hear Casey and said so, as best they could, by applauding his attempts to get started. But they were no match for the speech muggers.