Orrin Hatch: “tomorrow is January 22. This is a date that has become known for two related but radically different reasons. First, it…”

“tomorrow is January 22. This is a date that has become known for two related but radically different reasons. First, it is the anniversary of the Supreme Court's infamous decision in Roe v. Wade that imposed on America the most permissive abortion regime in the world. That decision degraded human life by degrading the Constitution. At the center of the debate over the morality, legality, or policy of abortion is the fact that each abortion kills a living human being. That this fact is inescapable does not prevent many from trying mightily to escape it, but it cannot be avoided, obscured, or ignored. Let me repeat: Each abortion kills a living human being. That fact informed President Ronald Reagan when he wrote a moving essay in 1983 titled ``Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation.'' He wrote: ``We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life--the unborn-- without diminishing the value of all human life.'' The real question, he said, is not about when human life begins but about the value of human life. I believe that remains the real question today. Starting even before America's founding, the law had been on a steady march toward protecting human beings before birth. The 19th century movement that succeeded in prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother was led by medical professionals and civil rights activists. That consensus, however, began to unravel in the 20th century.…”