In the 1976 Presidential primaries, Carter really stole a lot of Sargent Shriver's support from people who were concerned about abortion by, shall we say, prevaricating on the issue



In the 1976 Presidential primaries, Carter really stole a lot of Sargent Shriver's support from people who were concerned about abortion by, shall we say, prevaricating on the issue

Did Carter betray the pro-life cause?

SFH: Oh, absolutely. The 1976 election was the first election after the Roe v. Wade decision. So how it played out politically was a little unclear and in the Iowa caucuses, which is where he made his breakthrough, he would say different things to different audiences. He would imply to Catholic voters and to conservative Protestant voters that he was against abortion, and say I might favor some sort of national statute to regulate it. He would tell feminist groups that he was for abortion rights and he wouldn't interfere with it. What's important about that is there was a pro- life Catholic Democrat in that race, it was Sargent Shriver, who had been McGovern's running mate in '72.

People forget now that there was a pro-life Democrat on a national ticket as recently as 1972; now they can't even speak at Democratic conventions. So Carter really stole a lot of Shriver's support from people who were concerned about abortion by, shall we say, prevaricating on the issue.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jun 28, 2004