friendly reminder that ronald reagan, who, during his 1984 debate with walter f. mondale was quoted as saying:
“With me, abortion is not a problem of religion, it’s a problem of the Constitution. I believe that until and unless someone can establish that the unborn child is not a living human being, then that child is already protected by the Constitution, which guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all of us.”
during reagan’s presidency 117, 508 men, women, and children were reported with having AIDS. at that time, 89, 343 had died. by the time of this debate, 7,239 cases of AIDS had been reported, with 5, 596 deaths. even after three years of the virus being reported, and the large number of deaths due to the virus, reagan had still refused to publicly acknowledge HIV/AIDS. consequently, reagan would only publicly address AIDS once, in 1987, by which time 40, 849 people had died.
for someone who is so often quoted on the issue of abortion, would so openly turn his back on thousands, letting them die, needlessly, due to his silence, due to the failure in government funding and education; the FDA’s failure in supplying citizens with AZT until 1987, and unanimously for infants and children in 1990 - six and nine years after the first reports of AIDS. perhaps, due to his adviser’s stance, that, “they are only getting what they justly deserve”, or reagan’s personal convictions, he denied thousands of americans the right to life. tens of thousands who were not only homosexuals, but affected from hemophiliac medicines, blood transfusions, and sexual contact.
this is the president reagan that the public should know about. this is the president who is famously quoted as saying, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”, but had no problem in choosing whether tens of thousands should live or die. a man who was guaranteed the right to life and happiness, yet restricted that constitutional right to so many who weren’t allowed to live the rest of their lives.
sources:
http://forward.com/articles/7046/rewriting-the-script-on-reagan-why-the-president/
