American Life League’s Patrick Delaney recently had a chance to sit down with pro-life leader Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire. Sen. Smith has distinguished himself as one of very few politicians who places the defense of objective moral principles above special interests, despite pressures for conformity within his own party.
ALL: Your Right to Life Act of 2001 [S. 1373] seems to re-focus the pro-life issue along the simple lines of objective Catholic moral teaching. Could you reflect for us on the purpose of the Right to Life Act and what we can hope to achieve with it?
Senator Smith: There are two aspects of this act. One is just elementary biology, which is that life begins at fertilization. That’s the essence of the Right to Life Act.
The second aspect of the Act is simply constitutional in nature. Under the Fifth and the Four-teenth Amendments, it is clear that human life is to be protected.
And finally, on the moral side, the thought of taking unborn children and discarding them down sinks and trash cans is so abhorrent that any legitimate system of morality must find it totally unacceptable. We’ve basically discarded 43 million of our own children since Roe v. Wade in 1973. I think all of us in society bear some responsibility for that.
But I regret to say that we don’t have enough co-sponsors to make it law. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to fight.
ALL: In our office we are constantly monitoring human rights abuses in China, particularly the effects of their so-called “one-child policy.” These include forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and the brutal reprisals that come to those who resist. About a year and a half ago, the House and Senate voted to award China Permanent Normal Trade Relations. You voted against this. Why?
Smith: I think that to give PNTR to China and to ignore this kind of outrage—this kind of carnage—is just unacceptable. It’s wrong to look the other way and give these countries the opportunity to have such access to our markets—and not only increased access, but favored access.
A better way to do it is to be the moral leader of the world—which I believe we are—and say, “This is unacceptable. We are not going to give you normal permanent trade relations till you stop this kind of abuse.” There are human rights abuses that are pretty serious, but it doesn’t get any worse than telling a woman how many children she can have and then aborting, telling her that she has to have forced abortions. Even some pro-abortion women in this country would agree with that one.
ALL: When President Bush made his decision to fund research on existing embryonic stem cell lines, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops called it “morally unacceptable.” You agreed. Can you tell us why?
Smith: I absolutely agreed with the Bishops and others within the pro-life movement—these great thinkers, religious leaders and others who believe that to experiment on life without the consent of the person is wrong. We made that definitive decision in Nuremberg after the war. The embryonic child doesn’t get a chance to make that decision for the same reason they don’t get a chance to decide whether or not they’re going to be aborted. I opposed President Bush on it. It’s wrong.
ALL: Senator Smith, could you give us some thoughts on the difference between simply being “pro-life” and being a pro-life leader?
Smith: Sure. What I want people to say about Bob Smith after I leave the Senate is that “he led” on this issue. I took the floor on the Right to Life Act. I took the floor on the issue of covering unborn children with Medicaid other than just the mother. And I took the floor on the selling of body parts. I led. And when people said that [the selling of body parts] didn’t happen, I said that it did. And I proved it.
The only sponsors of the Right to Life Act are Sam Brownback, Jesse Helms, and Jim Bunning. Now if I asked you, “How many pro-life senators are there in the United States Senate?” you’d be rattling off names. They’re not on here. You know why? Because someone will read that this Act declares life begins at fertilization, and these senators don’t want that. They don’t want that to pop up in their campaigns. Will this bill be in my campaign? You bet! [Jeanne] Shaheen will be reading it. Fine. If it’s what I have to do to turn people, then it’s what I’ll do.
You’ve got to have the passion. If you are not passionate about the killing of unborn children, then you’re not really a believer. And I’m passionate about stopping it. I don’t make any apologies for it, and never have.
Sen. Smith fact sheet
Bob Smith was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 30, 1941. Two days before his fourth birthday, his dad, a naval aviator, was killed during active duty at the end of World War II. Smith’s grandparents helped raise him and his brother on their family farm in Allentown, New Jersey, while his mother worked to support her two boys. On the farm, Smith learned the les-sons of hard work, responsibility and patriotism.
He later worked his way through Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he received a degree in Government in 1965. He then met his wife, Mary Jo Hutchinson, with whom he has had three children.
When Smith began active duty in the Navy, the couple moved to California. The newly married couple barely had time to pack before Smith left for active duty in Vietnam (1966-67), stationed on a ship in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Following his service in the Navy, Smith returned home to his wife in California and did graduate work at Long Beach State College in Long Beach, California.
In 1970, Smith and his family settled in New Hampshire’s beautiful Lakes Region, where Smith taught history and government at Kingswood Regional High School.
In 1984, Bob Smith was elected to Congress as a true “citizen legislator.” He was honored again by the people of New Hampshire when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1990 and again in 1996.
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