JFK Wouldn’t Even Be Allowed To Speak At Today’s Democratic National Convention - Fifty years ago today, Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy. I’m probably not the first person to remind you of that today. But as everyone looks back wistfully on America’s Camelot, this is a good opportunity to remember that the JFK of a half century ago would not be looked at so fondly by today’s “progressives.”
As John F. Kennedy’s tax-rate-cut, strong dollar economic policy was being articulated and then implemented in the latter half of the presidency, the nation embarked upon an eight-and-a-half year, uninterrupted run of growth at just over 5% per year. Rarely have campaign promises, especially one so bold as to double the long-term rate of economic growth, been so comprehensively fulfilled.
Even ignoring JFK’s views on taxes, communism, the military, and a host of other issues, it is unlikely that JFK would have gotten past the litmus test for today’s Democratic Party—abortion. If JFK were here today it is unlikely that he would even be permitted to speak at the Democratic National Convention, much less be the standard bearer for today’s abortion-focused Democratic Party.
It should be admitted at the outset that JFK said very little about his views on abortion, since in his time abortion was not a hot political topic. In fact, Planned Parenthood itself was not publicly in favor of abortion in 1963. Brochures from the organization, still in use in 1963 (and for years thereafter), explain that birth control (which they supported) is not the same as abortion (which they did not):
Is [birth control] an abortion? Definitely not. An abortion … kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it.
The only quote I know of from JFK himself likewise evinces an apparent opposition to abortion, saying that using abortion as a means of population control—as Japan had done — “would be repugnant to most Americans.”
Of course JFK’s sister Eunice (Shriver) was an outspoken pro-life advocate throughout her life. And even his brother Teddy, an abortion supporter later in life, was pro-life in the days of Camelot. In a 1971 letter to a constituent, Senator Ted Kennedy explained
It is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. … [O]nce life has begun, no matter at what stage of growth, it is my belief that termination should not be decided merely by desire.
And in 1973, after the Roe decision, and as abortion advocates were seeking to force Catholic hospitals and medical professionals to violate their faith and perform abortions, Sen. Ted Kennedy not only voted for the Church Amendments to protect rights of conscience, he defended that freedom on the floor of the Senate.
