A legacy built on fighting abortion

Years after he passed the first modern federal law restricting abortion, Congressman Henry Hyde gilded his anti-abortion legacy when he took the stand in a trial to defend activists who blocked access to abortion facilities.

"If there had been a few people outside the gates of Auschwitz … maybe a few less people would have been incinerated," he said from the stand in 1998, likening abortion to the Holocaust.

Abortion-rights opponents reserved for Hyde a paramount position in the annals of their cause Thursday.

"Without him, the movement would not have the image that it now has," says Joe Scheidler of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League.

It was Scheidler who Hyde was defending on the stand in federal court. The longtime anti-abortion leader, and Hyde friend, was accused of masterminding a national conspiracy to deny women access to abortion clinics by blocking entrances and using other violent tactics.

In 1976 as a freshman congressman, Hyde launched himself into the heated battle over abortion rights -- and onto the national stage -- following Roe vs. Wade when he proposed and passed a ban on federal funding of abortions through Medicaid.

Proponents estimate the law has prevented millions of abortions. Opponents argue the ban unfairly punishes poor women, forcing them into dangerous illegal abortions or pregnancies they don't want.

Hyde's ban kicked off a three-decade political career often dominated by his anti-abortion efforts.

Most recently, Hyde helped push the ban on partial-birth abortions through the House and onto President Bush's desk, where it was quickly signed nearly a decade after the measure was first introduced.

Hyde's powerful oratory skills made him a must-have on the anti-abortion circuit, drawing in new members and energizing the rank-and-file when the fight seemed hopeless.

Yet, his anti-abortion passion was not limited to the spoken word. In 1985, he penned a book titled "For Every Idle Silence" -- lifted from a Benjamin Franklin quote -- that was championed by anti-abortion groups.

"We are going to win the struggle over values," he concluded in the book. "It is becoming culturally fashionable to protect the defenseless unborn. And rightly so."