Ron Paul delivers strongly anti-abortion speech

Meet Ron Paul, the social conservative.

The Texas congressman, best known for his small-government, anti-Federal Reserve economic views, tacked in a different direction with his Ames address and delivered an uncharacteristically sharp denunciation of the practice of abortion.


Paul began his remarks by acknowledging that his campaign is "identified with the cause of liberty." But, he continued: "There is something that precedes liberty and that is life."

"The prime reason that government exists in a free society is to protect liberty, but also to protect life. And I mean all life," Paul said.

The libertarian-leaning presidential candidate, who is an obstetrician by training, has long opposed abortion rights, but has not emphasized it in his presidential campaigns.

In his speech this afternoon, Paul described himself as "very strong right to life" and claimed that when he was in training in the 1950s, "It was assumed everybody was pro-life and abortions weren’t to be done."

By the 1960s, Paul said, that was changing. He recalled that physicians were "defying the law in doing abortions," and told a bracing story of seeing doctors deliver a baby via Caesarean section and then "put it in a bucket in the corner of the room and let it die and pretended nobody heard it."

"We cannot play God and make those decisions. All life is precious," Paul said. "You have to understand where that liberty and that life comes from. It does not come from the government. It comes from our creators."

Paul's decision to lean into social conservatism makes sense, given the heavily evangelical makeup of the Iowa GOP base. And it didn't seem to put off his red-shirted supporters, who filled many of the stadium

Paul returned to his core campaign message for the duration of his speech, which included denunciations of the Federal Reserve, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (In fact, as part of his remarks on the importance of life, Paul said young people should "never be required to fight in undeclared, unwinnable wars.")

His final pitch? Send people to Washington "who will obey the constitution."

This article tagged under: Ron Paul

2012 Elections