Jimmy Carter Courage Essay

Profiles in Courage Essay

One of the most essential qualities that a leader must have is courage. Courage demonstrates not only our beliefs but also perseverance to our beliefs in a time where they are challenged. As someone who presided and represented the United States of America, President Jimmy Carter had courage. President Jimmy Carter was one of the most influential presidents as well as one of the presidents who showed political courage when he signed the Hyde Amendment, because at the time, and still now, there are a majority of people who are against abortion.

When President Jimmy Carter ran for president, he ran as a Democrat and albeit his main concerns were mostly problems of oil, and human rights, his concerns expanded to the

problems in abortion. President Carter had a very clear stance on abortion: “No active government should ever, contribute to abortions. We should do all we can to minimize abortions favor a national statute that would restrict the practice of abortion in our country” (Clymer, 134). As President Carter made his decision on the Hyde Amendment, many were calling the attention to suffering Americans who did not want the child. President Carter as well as many other anti-abortionists, believed that abortion is the act of killing a life that did not have their own choice in their death or life.
The Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976 (aclu.org) and was named after Republican and chairman in the US House of Representatives Henry Hyde (Witherbee). The Hyde Amendment states that “none of the funds appropriated under this Act shall be expended for any abortion except when it is made known to the federal … official to which funds are appropriated … that such procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother or that the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest” (nchla.org). A few years before the Hyde Amendment was passed, the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case ruled that “unconstitutional a state law that banned abortions except to save the life of the mother … [and] that the states were forbidden from outlawing or regulating any aspect of abortion performed during the first trimester of pregnancy, could only enact abortion regulations reasonably related to maternal health in the second and third trimesters, and could enact abortion laws protecting the life of the fetus only in the third trimester” (McBride). Back then, there was a strong and equal divide for abortion and against abortion. When President Carter signed the Hyde Amendment, he appealed to the anti-abortionists and equaled things out after Roe vs. Wade. Although he knew he was going to get a strong backlash from the abortionists, he showed political courage and stand firm with his beliefs.
As President Carter was making a decision on the Hyde Amendment, Midge Costanza, his assistant urged him to change his viewpoints on the issue.

Costanza was a feminist, and the Hyde Amendment was everything a feminist was fighting against. When she found out about his views she “facilitated an impromptu meeting of forty subcabinet level women to formulate a response to the Hyde Amendment ... and that she—or someone else— had leaked [his viewpoints on federal spending on abortion] to the media in an effort to pressure him” (Potter 100-102). Although Costanza brought in forty White House appointees and leaked his viewpoints to make her point and urge President Carter to waive his viewpoints, President Carter stood firm and passed the Hyde Amendment, saving a number of unborn babies. A few years after the passing of the Hyde Amendment, was the Supreme Court Case Harris vs. McRae in 1980. The Supreme Court Ruled that “Title XIX does not require a participating State to pay for those medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement is unavailable under the Hyde Amendment... The funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment do not impinge on the "liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment held in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 168, to include the freedom of a woman to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy...Nor does the Hyde Amendment violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment” (Cornell).

During his presidency, many may regard President

Carter as ineffective because he was not able to communicate effectively with Congress and the House of Representatives. However, President Carter did achieve many other accomplishments, including the Hyde Amendment. He was able to achieve and stand firm to his beliefs and in doing so, he has political courage.