I think some of my fellow conservatives had started to believe that George W. Bush didn’t know he had the power to veto bills coming out of the United States Congress.

Now that he has finally decided to exercise that authority for the first time, some are grumbling that it is over an issue that either doesn’t matter or has little support among the American people. Naturally, I have a contrary view.

Back in the summer of 2001, when Mr. Bush presented the country with the announcement that he would allow the funding of research on “existing” stem cell lines, I wrote a column called “Read My Lips: No New Killing,” in which I took the president to task for that tortured decision. I wrote that while I could appreciate the savvy of the Bush White House in straddling the fence on this sensitive issue, I condemned the decision with every fiber of my being. I wrote that it was wrong, and that God and history would judge it so.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” There can be no greater example of the truth of that statement than to force American taxpayers to fund the destruction of innocent human life, whether it is at the moment of fertilization or at the age of ninety; and while the president failed to exercise that wisdom in his 2001 decision, he has redeemed himself with his veto of any funding for new embryonic stem cell research.

In a public ceremony at the White House, surrounded by children who started life as embryos artificially fertilized and implanted in the wombs of their mothers, Bush spoke of refusing to cross the bright moral line he had drawn in the sand. Kudos to him for taking that stand.

The irony, of course, is that the leftist radicals who worship at the altar of bio-science-as-savior believe that with this veto, Bush has banned stem cell research outright, when in reality he is the first president ever to fund it. And while he has forbidden the use of federal dollars for research on new stem cell lines, sadly, private firms are still free not only to experiment on existing lines, but also to create new embryos with which to play God.

Which brings us to a few important questions: If embryonic stem cells hold such promise for curing all sorts of diseases, why is the private sector not clamoring to fund the research?

If this is the cure-all that vice presidential candidate John Edwards promised it was when he crassly assured us that, “when John Kerry is president, Christopher Reeve will walk again,” why are we not witnessing the greatest race medical science has never seen to be the first private company to make this miracle research pay off?

If embryonic stem cells are so useful in treating disease, why are researchers plagued by the continued formation of tumors in tissue treated with these cells?

And finally, if embryonic stem cells show more promise than adult stem cells (which have already been used effectively for the treatment of various ailments), then why are there currently dozens of clinical trials going on using adult cells, but not a single one using embryonic stem cells?

The intellectually honest American knows the answers: it’s all about abortion. As the tide of public opinion turns against abortion on demand, the defenders of the indefensible must create new reasons to kill the unborn, at whatever stage of development. For this reason alone, I am thankful the president has drawn a line in the sand.

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© Copyright 2006 by Doug Patton

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor to conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.