What Shaped President Bush’s Pro-Life Views?

People come to a right-to-life position from many different experiences or exposures to information. President George W. Bush describes in his new book, “Decision Points,” what shaped his views early in life.

When he was a teenager, Bush’s mother, Barbara, had a miscarriage. She gave him a jar which contained the miscarried baby. Bush recalls, “I never expected to see the remains of the fetus, which she had saved in a jar to bring to the hospital. There was a human life, a little brother or sister.”

Bush continues, “There’s no question that affected me, a philosophy that we should respect life.”

I am deeply moved by this story — how a young teenager was profoundly impacted for a lifetime by seeing his dead little brother or sister in a jar and recognizing him/her as a human life to be respected. The right-to-life movement has much for which to thank President Bush. Hearing this story, told publicly for the first time, gives a deeper understanding of what motivated him as the world’s most powerful leader to lead efforts to protect human life.

Barbara Lyons