On January 22nd - the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade - Dr. Robert P. George addressed the  March for Life Rose Dinner on the topic: "Our Struggle for the Soul of the Nation."

Dr. George, in addition to being the founder of the American Principles Project, is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Founder and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

Recently Dr. George co-authored the landmark Manhattan Declaration along with Professor Timothy George and Chuck Colson. It has now been signed by over 400,000 individuals.

Dr. George's rousing speech was well-received by the attentive audience, which erupted in spontaneous applause on numerous occasions throughout the delivery. The original text of his remarks can be found on the American Principles Project website here.

Some excerpts of his speech include:

"If Roe [v. Wade] is reversed, the result will be to return the matter to the domain of ordinary democratic deliberation for resolution by the state legislatures or the Congress. The burden will then be on the pro-life movement to win the struggle for the soul of the nation. We must ... persuade our fellow citizens to fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence by bringing the unborn fully within the protection of our laws."

"... In addition to prayer and our political efforts, there is the obligation to reach out to pregnant women who are in need or who are subject for other reasons to pro-abortion pressures. The partisans of abortion, with the help of an overwhelmingly sympathetic and deeply biased news media, have portrayed people who oppose the killing of the unborn, whether by abortion or in embryo-destructive research, as heartless moralizers bent on oppressing women and impeding the progress of science. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For decades, pro-life people—mostly women—have devoted themselves, often at great personal cost and in the face of many obstacles, to assisting their pregnant sisters in need. They have recognized that a truly just and humane understanding is one that recognizes the common dignity and mutual interests of mother and child.

Ordinary pro-life individuals and families have worked and sacrificed to provide for the material, emotional, and spiritual needs of pregnant women in need—many of whom, it must be noted, are driven to contemplate abortion under pressure from boyfriends, husbands, family, and friends. Even women who have succumbed to the temptation to destroy their unborn children are not condemned or abandoned by the pro-life movement. Rather, they are offered forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing—no strings attached. At the same time, it is pro-life Americans who are leading the charge for ethical and therapeutically useful forms of stem cell research—research that does not compromise biomedical science by killing in the cause of healing."

After his address, Dr. George took a few questions from the audience, and ended by encouraging concerned citizens to sign the Manhattan Declaration and to continue their efforts on behalf of the unborn with the conviction that all people are created equal.

[Photo credit: March for Life.]