Quayle Vows White House Will Fight to End Legal Abortion

WASHINGTON —  To chants of “four more years,” Vice President Dan Quayle pledged Thursday that the Bush Administration would fight to end legal abortion during a second term and return the nation to a “commitment to Judeo-Christian values.”

“Our opponents treat God’s greatest gift--new life--as an inconvenience to be discarded,” Quayle told the annual meeting of the National Right to Life Committee. “They believe in the right to dispose of life. We believe in the right to life.”

In recent weeks, Quayle has moved to solidify conservative support in the fall elections with themes reminiscent of those used two decades ago by former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Also to chants of “four more years,” the reelection campaign of then-President Richard M. Nixon portrayed the media as elitists out of touch with the American mainstream.

To cheers and standing ovations Thursday, Quayle renewed his attack on the “country’s self-appointed cultural elite” who he said mock the values of “average Americans.”

“My friends, I know it can be discouraging playing David to the Goliath of the dominant cultural elite,” he said. “In Hollywood and elsewhere, your opponents have a lot of money, a lot of glamour, a lot of influence. But we have the power of ideas, the power of our convictions, the power of our beliefs. And we shall carry the day.”

Young people in the room held signs saying: “Murphy Brown Does Not Speak for Us. . . . But Dan Quayle Does”--a reference to the speech three weeks ago in which Quayle began the current debate by accusing the television character of corrupting the nation’s morals by having a child out of wedlock.

The NRLC, the nation’s largest anti-abortion group, has strongly endorsed President Bush’s reelection. Bush “has been solid like a rock in his pro-life stand,” said NRLC President Wanda Franz, a professor of child development at West Virginia University.

Bush has maintained his anti-abortion stance since 1980, after he became Ronald Reagan’s running mate. Before that, he supported the right to abortion.

The Administration has moved to cut off federal funds to family planning clinics where counselors discuss abortion as an option for pregnant women. Bush vetoed funding bills that would have allowed officials of the District of Columbia to pay for abortions for poor women. In April, his lawyers urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. He has promised to veto pending bills that would fund medical research using fetal tissue, or what the NRLC calls “baby harvesting.”

If the high court dismantles Roe this year or next, Democratic leaders of Congress say they will push a national “Freedom of Choice Act” to maintain legal abortion.

“It will not become law as long as I am President of the United States,” Bush has vowed.

While any mention of Bush’s name drew shouts and applause from the anti-abortion leaders, a reference from the podium to likely Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton and presumed independent candidate Texas billionaire Ross Perot drew boos and hisses.

Both Clinton and Perot say they support the right to choose abortion and, if elected, would sign a Freedom of Choice Act.