The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report.
Welcome. Welcome, welcome! Ed Martin here on the Pro America Report and I was over for much of the day at the Pro-Life March, the rally visiting with some pro-life leaders, some families and folks. One of the fun things about it, a lot of times that I’ve come to the March for life in Washington, DC. You see. You know that a lot of leaders are coming like people that run pregnancy resource centers and all these kinds of different policy centers and political centers even.
But then you get, at the March for Life, there’re lots of families. Kids and moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas and you know grandkids and cousins and all. And it’s a really a a great thing. So really fun and I hope that you have had a chance to mark this important anniversary. This is the first March for Life, which is the commemoration of the terrible decision in January of of 1973 and Roe V. Wade and Doe V Bolton, which been rolled back since Dobbs. So it’s a great celebration. Ohh, I know another example.
I last night I was at an event where Kirk Cameron spoke the actor where he was phenomenal and Abby Johnson spoke and. Rick Santorum was recognized and I met a. Fam, I met a friend of ours, someone we know, kind of. Through church and stuff. And their son was on a bus at that moment coming from Notre Dame from South Bend, on a bus overnight. They get on the bus at 6:00 o’clock at night on on Thursday. They drive through the night and get to the DC area on Friday morning and then they spend. They go to mass and then they spend the day and they go back the next day and so he. But my point is lots and lots of things like that.
Going on, I remember when I was in My 20s with a group from. Uh, my church going on the bus and it’s a terrible. It’s a 20. It’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a thing for teenagers and 20 year olds cause you you sort of sleep overnight then you stumble around all day on the day of the March for life and then you. Get back on. The bus so anyway it it’s exciting. It’s exciting, but I started the conversation with you yesterday. On what you need to know about policy about what’s going on about this sort of new world, the new pro-life America when we don’t have this crazy crazy law, crazy constitutional ruling.
And I was explaining it to my sons. As we drove in to the March for Life in Washington DC from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I was telling my sons that the way I was describing it was well in 1973. Now that we know you look at Clarke Forsythe‘s book Abuse of Discretion, and you see that the Supreme Court justices and their Staffs made it up, but what did they make up? Well, they made-up a constitutional protection to. Kill your baby. They said we look at the Constitution and we’re able to find this this right to privacy that extends to killing your baby and therefore all across the country. You’re not allowed to limit this constitutional right. It’s like the right to vote or the right to free speech. It’s a right in the Constitution. To kill your baby.
And for 50 years, States and local communities could not limit this sacrosanct, right That was made-up by these justices and their Staffs and was in the supposed to be in the Constitution. Well now that’s gone and so. Now you’re back to. There’s no prohibition yet. I hope there will be someday soon of abortion under the law. There should be a federal law passed by Congress, both houses signed by the president that says abortion is illegal. That’s good, that would be good, just like murder should be illegal murder, you know murder is illegal. You kill someone intentionally, that’s illegal, that’s a crime. So we’ll see if we get there.
But in the interim, when you pass a law in Missouri that protects life and stops abortion, there’s no created. Made-up Federal Constitution, US constitutional protection to kill your baby. There may be in states that they they pass a law and they passed a constitutional amendment in Michigan. That seems to protect the right to kill your baby. So there’s lots of different state fights and all, but that I mentioned that yesterday what you need to know today is the horizon for the problem of abortion.
The horizon for solutions is much broader than any legal fight. And in the conversation at the Kirk Cameron event last night, it was at the museum for the B, Museum of the Bible. The, A conversation that we had was on adoption.
Why isn’t adoption something that’s totally and wonderfully encouraged in our society and subsidized? If you could have a child tax credit, which is a a tax credit for people that have family? For for kids, right? That you you, you have kids, you know. You have a lot more Costs and we want people to have kids. We need kids in our society. Need stabilize stabilization. Our society. We want to incentivize certain policies under the law. Why don’t we have incentives for adoption? Why don’t we have less barriers for adoption? Because there’s tons of barriers, the cost is the biggest one you talked to. People that adopt. They’ll say it costs 10s of thousands, forty, $50,000 to adopt a child. We ought to incentivize that, and we ought to. Lower the cost. We obviously have to have safety and protection, right? You can’t let people that are troubled adopt children. You gotta be careful. But there’s a lot of people that can’t have children that want to have children, want to have a family, and Kirk Cameron gave his speech. He has six children. I think he’s six. I think the first four are adopted and as he told the story, Kirk Cameron, you know, famous TV star movie star, his wife was also a TV star. He was. She was his girlfriend on that show. On the when he was Mike Seavers, I forget the name of the show. Now I wasn’t a big TV guy, but anyway, the the reality is that the the his wife was. The actress who was. Played on the show and they and they they got married and she was adopted so he said it’s for growing pains. That’s the name of the show growing pains. On growing pains. Mike Seaver’s girlfriend on the movie on the in the show. Was an actress who ended up marrying and he married her and she was adopted and the point is that my point is that adoption is a wonderful thing. Right, adoption is an incredible thing.
Adoption is a great thing and the reality is. We need to incentivize it. You talk about what you need to know if you’re pro-life. Let’s get pro-life. If you’re if you’re pro-life. If you wanna help the mother who’s pregnant who doesn’t know what to do, get pro-life. Get pro-life, let’s do things to let’s do things to to incentivize. Yeah, her name. Her name is Chelsea Noble. Chelsea Noble was the name of the I think that’s the name. Let’s see yes. Yeah, she’s married to she married yeah Chelsea noble is the actress who was was on growing pains with Kirk Cameron. They ended up getting married. We need sets of policies that are focused on the mother who is in need and if you are the mother in need and you cannot imagine your life because you find yourself pregnant, which is what happens with abortion, you can’t imagine what happens you’re you, you and what you imagine. Let’s say it better. Is scary, terrifying, life altering? You know, dramatically impactful. We need to have a a really good way of talking about and incentivizing other things.
You can imagine adoption, you know, support different ways, and it ought to cut across. Just like a lot of policies cut across boundaries in the last few years on where traditional conservatives. We’re saying things like, well, you know, we we like free markets. It works out well. A lot of Americans said, yeah, you tried you. You people tried that you you policymakers tried that argument didn’t work for our families. It didn’t work for job, supporting family, supporting jobs. In the Rust Belt and all those kinds of things, right? So in fact, I think my argument would be conservatives were were were disagreeing with Republicans. Republicans were buying into all the trade free trade. It would even out. Open borders. It would be magical in the long run. Conservatives were saying, yeah, not so much. Not so fast. But anyway, but be that as it may.
The creativity. Of saying to ourselves, post Roe V Wade. Post Roe, V. Wade, and Doe V Bolton. What are the possibilities and don’t just fight over the law? As we do, I’m I’m for, I’m for laws that make things better and protect life. Also fight for the incentives that change the mindset. Change the thought pattern on life. On the value on what could be? You wanna get controversial? There was a time. And I’ve heard people talk about it. Where you say? Well, if I couldn’t have children. My wife and I sure would be willing to pay to have a child to get a child. You say, well, are you selling babies? Well, not exactly, but but not. It’s not exactly wrong too. Meaning what would you do if you wanted you have people by the way, rich people are are running around paying for surrogate motherhood and all this kind of stuff, there’s lots of things happening. But a lot of Americans I can think of one couple in my life right now that want to have children and they’re not able to right now physically in terms of their the, their their marriage in terms of their life together. And they want. Children, they’d do anything for, they’re they’re getting ready to pay 10s of thousands of dollars to adopt. That’s what it costs. Couldn’t we have a better system? And then couldn’t we incentivize it? And then couldn’t you be a 16 year old girl and imagine and say wow? Look I I now know that that actress that became Kirk Cameron’s wife and she’s famous and gorgeous and successful. She was adopted and her children were adopted. I can imagine that being a life and she has a relationship with her birth mother or doesn’t.
But there’s a way about this that what you need to know is you’re changing the mindset. Changing how we think about something. And when you have a big change like Roe V Wade Doe V Bolton being reversed, then you have an opportunity. To change other aspects of what’s happening in the conversation. In the debate. Real opportunity. A real opportunity and one that when I see these great people gathered for March for life in DC and then I see pictures of people gathered in home communities. There’s always a big March for life out in in California in a couple different cities and then smaller ones in different towns and in Saint Louis and and prayer vigils and things. Well, how do we move our mindset? To helping the mothers who are in need in this moment. And further, the pro-life movement, the life movement. Just a few thoughts. What you need to know, alright, I’ll be right back.
Ed Martin, we got John Schlafly today. We also will catch up new guest Doctor Izumi Dr. Izumi’s got a book. We’ll talk with him about his book and he is somebody who has, I met him through one of our policy folks and and he’s talking about. The impact of education. And the importance of education and school boards and other things. Very practical guy. He’s been on the front line so we’ll talk with him. And John Schlafly. What’s happening in Davos? Finally, an update on Davos. Good to hear from John on that. Right back, Ed. Martin here on the Pro America Report.
