US Presidency
1984

I think your questions, however, underscore the fact there is probably no way that government should or could answer this question in every individual case and in the private lives of the American people. The constitutional amendment proposed by President Reagan would make it a crime for a woman to have an abortion if she had been raped or suffered from incest. Is it really the view of the American people, however you feel on the question of abortion, that government ought to be reaching into your living rooms and making choices like this? I think it can not work, won't work, and will lead to all kinds of cynical evasions of the law. Those who can afford to have them will continue to have them. The disadvantaged will go out in the back alley as they used to do. I think these questions are inherently personal and moral, and every individual instance is different. Every American should be aware of the seriousness of the step.