THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

Pro-lifers were instrumental in Reagan's victory in 1980. Certainly Reagan was opposed to abortion, not only personally but politically. His door was always open to the Jerry Falwells and other activists. But Reagan didn't push their legislation, and he kept them at arm's length.

Let me tell you why.

Those of us who fought for the lives of unborn babies always worried about "Nelly Grey bunch." These were the pro-lifers who demanded that all abortions be banned regardless of the health of the mother or rape. You couldn't pass legislation like that, and none of us wanted to. A raped girl shouldn't have to have the rapist's child.

But the "Nelly Grey bunch" didn't care if all legislation was defeated and unborn babies would die as long as they could be ideologically pure.

That was the nastiest kind of callousness posing as Idealism. But no one in the pro-life movement would call them on it. That made them the kind of people you didn't want to be too close to.

Today the pro-life movement is once again being totally callous and cruel, and no one inside that group will say so.

A lot of people make a living off of the pro-life movement, just like a lot of people make a living from the NAACP. But the NAACP has no function any more, so it makes its money attacking Confederate flags. Those who profit from pro-life are in the same position.

Yes, they were successful in outlawing partial birth abortions. But the courts will knock that down.

Now that they are stymied on any real accomplishments, all the pro-life hangers-on can do is block medical research, and that is what they are doing. They started off trying to outlaw cloning, now they are fighting to outlaw all research that could kill any fertilized embryo.

While I was in Washington their big push was to ban in vitro fertilization. Over thirty thousand of today's Americans are the products of in vitro fertilization, and their parents could not have children otherwise. The pro-life movement never mentions its battle to ban in vitro fertilization.

I have been warned repeatedly to avoid criticizing any of this. I am told that anybody who is pro-life will go to pieces at any criticism.

I couldn't care less. I don't coddle nutcases.

As long as pro-lifers walk around with this "I am an a Nut" button on their lapels, the cause of unborn children is doomed.

The group that calls itself The Greatest Generation included a lot of people who strutted around in their ridiculous little paper army hats declaring that their comrades died to make Europe a multiracial society and to impose racial integration. Not one member of this group that proclaimed itself Heroes and Patriots had the guts to call these clowns down.

Today pro-lifers sit there silent while kooks block serious medical research in their name.

The paper hat crowd has to admit that every single word I say about them is true. Their only defense is to throw a fit when I say it.

Pro-lifers today are nasty little moral cowards, just like the paper-hat crowd. Otherwise they would denounce these kooks. When they hear me say that, they will throw a fit and roll around on the floor and hold their breath until they turn blue.

But what they won't do is get on their feet and show some moral guts.