The Susan B. Anthony List is a pro-life group who have encouraged presidential candidates to sign their Pro-Life Leadership Presidential Pledge. There are four parts to the pledge. The first promise signers make is that they will only nominate “federal bench judges who are committed to restraint” and that those judges will be dedicated to applying the original meaning of the constitution. The second promise is that they will only “select pro-life appointees for relevant cabinet and Executive Branch positions”. Meaning that they will only select pro-life supporters to be the head of positions like the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Justice. The third obligation signers will have is that they will “advance pro-life legislation to permanently end all taxpayer funding of abortion in domestic and international spending programs”. This will include defunding organizations such as planned parenthood. A former George Bush Justice Department official said that he is worried that the pledge is possibly too “far-reaching in its implications.” He says that if it is taken as it is written then there is the possibility that Medicare and Medicaid patients would not be able to use any hospitals that perform any type of abortion. Mitt Romney refused to sing the pledge because he believes that the pledge calls for legislation that would “strip taxpayer funding from thousands of health care facilities”. Now, if the pledge really calls for that is debatable but if further proves the point that the pledge is too vague. The last promise of the pledge is that signers will “advance and sign into law a Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to protect unborn children who are capable of feeling pain from abortion. The pledge has no expiration date, so it is just as binding as the tax reform pledge written by the Americans for Tax reform advocacy group. Republican congressmen who signed the pledge in 1986 are still bound by it today. The pledge is partly responsible for the failure of the debt-reducing super-committee and for the way it “essentially kills any serious prospects for tax reform”. The Susan B. Anthony Pledge might seem like a good way for candidates to get support from voters at the moment, but it could restrain them in the way they vote years from now. So Far Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have signed the pledge. The Susan B. Anthony List also supports many congressmen and encourages them to make policies that will ultimately end abortion. If someone who has signed this pledge becomes president then they will limit people’s right to pursue happiness. People will not be able to follow their own moral code, they will be having the moral code of someone else forced on them. People who do want to get an abortion will not be able to make that choice for themselves because federal judges, the president, and Health Departments will all be against their choice. Anyone with a different moral code will not be able to fully pursue their happiness. If a signer of this pledge becomes president then these laws will come from the federal government and will be confirmed by the judicial branch. It does not matter if a President or a Congressman is against abortion, but they should be able to let everyone make that choice for themselves. The best outcome for this situation is for no else to sing this pledge and that the next president is someone who has not supported the Susan B. Anthony List.
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