What you won't hear about Humphrey at his memorial dedication: He opposed abortion

The following statement may be attributed to MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach.

Humphrey on the cover of the MCCL
newsletter in 1974

The new Hubert H. Humphrey (HHH) memorial will be dedicated Saturday on the Capitol mall in St. Paul. Numerous officials including former President Bill Clinton, Governor Mark Dayton , U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, and former Governor Arne Carlson are speakers on the dedication program. I am sure that many of the accomplishments of the late U.S. senator and vice president will be lauded at the event. I am also certain that the crowd won't be reminded that Humphrey was against abortion.

Hubert H. Humphrey was a Democrat and a progressive for sure, but he was also a believer in civil rights and social justice. When asked on the campaign trail about legalized abortion he said flat out, "I am not for it."

Legalized abortion came towards the end of Humphrey's political career, but by the late 1960s and early 1970s abortion was being discussed widely. Even though those were the early days of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life's organizing efforts, Humphrey had lengthy dialog with pro-life leaders.

Humphrey was an exceptional orator. One of his most famous quotes from 1976 underscores his concern for society's most vulnerable citizens: "The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

HHH brought great zeal to the public arena to defend the defenseless, speak for the voiceless and protect the weakest among us in society. I doubt that he would understand the zeal that his memorial's dedicators have brought to the public arena to promote the destruction of innocent, voiceless and defenseless unborn children from abortion.