April 12, 2007
Zell Miller: Abortion Key To Military Crisis
Reports of a U.S. military "stretched thin" by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dominated the media in recent days, but former Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., was calling attention to the problem a month ago. In a speech delivered in Macon, Ga., on March 6, Miller offered his own explanation for the troop shortage: Roe v. Wade.
The 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion has contributed to a shortage of U.S. citizens who could be fighting wars and alleviating the potential Social Security crisis, Miller told an anti-abortion group.
"Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We’re too few because too many of our babies have been killed," the former Georgia senator and governor said at a fundraising event for Macon's Sav a Life Center. "Over 45 million since Roe v. Wade in 1973. If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security," he added.
The Macon Telegraph's Web site posted video of Miller's speech and the story was picked up by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Political Insider blog last month. But Miller's comments went mostly unnoticed by the mainstream media, which has been more focused on scrutinizing the words of presidential candidates (although an online "Draft Zell Miller" petition has 15 signatures and counting).
In the fall of 2003, Miller devoted a chapter of his book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," to explaining his conversion from a pro-choice to a pro-life stance on abortion.
Miller, who still considers himself a Democrat, served four years in the Senate after taking over for deceased Georgia Sen. Paul Coverdell in 2000. Rather than run for re-election in 2004, Miller stepped down from the seat and famously campaigned for George W. Bush at the Republican National Convention that year.
