Remarks at a Family Forum Event in Iowa

The first acts of every President define his administration. President Clinton launched his with a series of executive orders forcing abortion even further into American life. One required federally funded family planning clinics to provide abortion counseling. Another provided American tax dollars to overseas groups promoting abortion as a method of family planning. And another instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to assess ways to promote the testing and licensing of an abortion pill.

I have come to Iowa, to this center of caring and compassion, to announce that when I am President, my first and full day in office will be declared American Family Day. And as President, I will rescind every one of those acts of federal coercion.

In a Dole administration, abortion on demand will no longer be the policy of the federal government. As long as we hold the White House, federal agencies will be in the business of licensing drugs that promote life, not death. And our federal tax dollars will not be used to promote abortion overseas.

And I will add one more to this list. A government panel has recommended the unthinkable. And we must stop it. As your President, I will sign an executive order to prohibit federal funding for harmful or destructive experiments on living human embryos.

We talk all day about children's issues, as liberals often do. But it will be just that — hollow talk — if we don't have enough love in our hearts to care for the most innocent among us. All our talk about a less violent, more caring society will come to nothing unless we protect the sanctity of human life. Until the day comes when we overturn Roe v. Wade, why can't we require parental consent before a minor obtains an abortion? Why can't we stop partial birth abortions? Why can't we get the government out of the business of promoting abortions? The truth is, we can — and with the right leadership in the White House — we will.

The Oval Office should be a place of moral leadership for America. But, for the past three years, it has not been. The policies of the federal government should be rooted in the values embraced by the American people. But our President has advocated policies that undermine these values. The executive orders he signed were just among the first examples.

Abortion is not an issue of when life begins. It's a question of when love begins. It's a question of what kind of people we are and aspire to become. A spirit of hope is evident across America — in crisis pregnancy centers, in groups finding homes for children, by churches and synagogues caring for unwed mothers, and by teenagers promoting abstinence. This will be the spirit of the Dole administration, for this is the spirit of America.