RIP Henry Hyde
In an age of wishy-washy wind-checkers, Congressman Henry Hyde stood out by taking stands on issues as bold and as bright as the colors of the flag he loved and served so well.
In the beginning he had many bipartisan allies in his Right to Life cause. Over the years, many of them, for the sake of political expediency, drifted away. The sad case of Jesse Jackson comes immediately to mind.
But Hyde stood his ground. He knew what he believed in, and he fought for his beliefs. He managed to keep the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions, virtually intact for decades, despite the shifting sands of politics and public opinion.
According to National Review, the National Right to Life Committee conservatively estimates that the Hyde Amendment prevented over a million abortions in the last thirty years. That’s a million people walking around today who owe their lives to the tenacity of this one man.
I think it is fair to say that he has justified his life here, and will be welcomed heartily in the next.
