On September 30, the day that the pro-life community honored the late Rep. Henry Hyde—the Hyde Amendment was passed 40 years ago on that day—it is worth recalling how the ACLU adopted Nazi-like tactics trying to destroy this great Catholic statesman.
[The following account is found in the first of Bill Donohue’s two books on the ACLU, The Politics of the ACLU; both this book, and Twilight of Liberty: The Legacy of the ACLU, were published by Transaction Press.]
In the 1970s, after it became clear that Rep. Hyde was the champion of unborn children, the ACLU stated publicly that his amendment amounted to the enactment of Roman Catholic “dogma and doctrine.”
To gather evidence, it dispatched a lawyer to spy on him. The agent found that Hyde went to Mass on Sundays, where, as the report said, “pregnant women and children” bore “gifts of life.” It also noted that Hyde actually prayed and went to Communion! This was part of a 301-page brief (it was thrown out by a judge).
When Hyde was asked about the ACLU’s strategy, he said, “I suppose the Nazis did that—observed Jews going to the synagogues in Hitler’s Germany—but I had hoped that we had gotten past that kind of fascist tactic.”
The signature goal of the fascist Left is power, and its preferred means include lying, manipulation, libel, and violence. Rep. Henry Hyde got a taste of some of it, courtesy of the ACLU.
No one, including the ACLU, could stop Hyde. It is up to us to see to it that the Hyde Amendment remains law. Both Clinton and Kaine have pledged to repeal it, so deeply committed are they to killing the unborn.
