[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 3 (Monday, January 24, 2005)]
[Pages 65-66]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7863--National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2005

January 14, 2005

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all Americans are 
endowed by the Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we 
celebrate the sacred gift of life.
    We have a responsibility in America to defend the life of the 
innocent and the powerless. Our Nation has made significant progress in 
recent years toward building a culture of life. Last year, I signed into 
law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which provides that any 
person who causes death or injury to a pregnant woman commits

[[Page 66]]

two separate offenses. I worked with members of both parties to ban the 
brutal practice of partial-birth abortion, and I signed the Born-Alive 
Infants Protection Act. Working with the Congress, my Administration has 
halted spending of taxpayers' money on international programs that 
promote abortions overseas. We continue to promote abstinence education, 
adoption programs, crisis pregnancy programs, and other efforts to help 
protect life.

    My Administration remains committed to the steadfast belief in the 
dignity of every human being and the promise of every life. Across our 
country, we must continue to encourage our citizens to make ours a more 
just and welcoming society in which every child is born into a loving 
family and protected by law. We will work with decency and respect to 
change hearts and minds, one person at a time. In doing so, we will 
build a lasting culture of life and a more compassionate society.

    Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United States of 
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 16, 2005, 
as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to 
recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places 
of worship and to reaffirm our commitment to respecting the life and 
dignity of every human being.

    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day 
of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand five, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
ninth.
                                                George W. Bush

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 9:29 a.m., January 19, 
2005]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on January 15, and it was published in the Federal Register on 
January 21.