From Conservative Pro-Life Presbyterian Champion to Hero of Gay Activists in the Reagan Administration
By Julio Severo
C. Everett Koop (1916-2013) was a devout
Presbyterian, or conservative Reformed (as Calvinists choose to define
themselves), physician who campaigned nationally against abortion and
euthanasia in the 1970s. In that time, he published his books “The Right to
Live, the Right to Die” and “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?,” which he
co-authored with Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer.
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| C. Everett Koop |
He became the first editor of the Journal
of Pediatric Surgery when it was founded in 1966.
So
it is no wonder that as soon as Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) became the President
of the United States in 1981, he appointed Koop as Surgeon General to bring his
strong pro-life convictions to the conservative administration and also to
bring the influence of Schaeffer.
The fact that Reagan appointed a famous pro-life
evangelical surgeon as the highest medical authority in the United States is a
testament to his commitment to conservative evangelicals and their pro-life
values. In fact, Reagan himself was the first president to write a pro-life
book, “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation,” published by Thomas Nelson Publishers,
a leading Calvinist publishing house.
Dr. C. Everett Koop is widely regarded as
the most influential surgeon general in American history and played a crucial
role in changing public attitudes about smoking.
He served as surgeon general from 1982 to
1989, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Even though Presbyterians or Calvinists
are known as tolerant of smoking, as a former pipe smoker Presbyterian Koop carried
out a crusade to end smoking in the United States. He said cigarettes were as
addictive as heroin and cocaine.
“Smoking kills 300,000 Americans a year,”
he said in one talk. “Smokers are 10 times more likely to develop lung cancer
than nonsmokers, two times more likely to develop heart disease. Smoking a pack
a day takes six years off a person’s life.”
When Koop took office, 33 percent of
Americans smoked; when he left, the percentage had dropped to 26. By 1987, 40
states had restricted smoking in public places, 33 had prohibited it on public conveyances
and 17 had banned it in offices and other work sites. More than 800 local
antismoking ordinances had been passed, and the Reagan administration had
restricted smoking in 6,800 federal buildings. Antismoking campaigns by private
groups like the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association
had accelerated.
In taking on the tobacco lobby, he was
also taking on powerful politicians from tobacco-growing states. After he
accused the tobacco industry of directing advertising at children and
threatening human lives, Gov. Jim Hunt of North Carolina, a Democrat, called
for his impeachment.
In 1996, he rapped Republican presidential
hopeful Bob Dole for suggesting that tobacco was not invariably addictive,
saying Dole’s comments “either exposed his abysmal lack of knowledge of nicotine
addiction or his blind support of the tobacco industry.”
Today conservatives understand the need of
antismoking laws. President
Donald Trump also restricted smoking in 2019.
Even though Koop was right on smoking, the
heavy pressure on him, especially coming from powerful pro-abortion groups and
journalists, took a heavy toll.
President Ronald Reagan asked Koop to
write a report about the impact of abortion on the physical, emotional and
psychological health of women.
This was a big chance for Koop to put his famous
convictions into action, but he declined the historic opportunity. He sent a
letter back to Reagan stating that there was insufficient research to write a
report. Pro-abortion activists celebrated his answer as astounding victory. Angered
prolife leaders could hardly believe that this was the same man who ten years
earlier had compared abortion to Nazi genocide in the movie and book “Whatever
Happened to the Human Race?”
Koop traveled the country in 1979 and 1980
giving speeches that predicted a progression “from liberalized abortion to
infanticide to passive euthanasia to active euthanasia, indeed to the very
beginnings of the political climate that led to Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen.”
Koop represented the best hopes of the
pro-life movement in the conservative Reagan administration. Because of his high
pro-life credentials, probably any conservative president would have appointed
this pro-life champion to any government post.
Reagan gave him a golden chance to
implement his pro-life principles. But what Reagan discovered is that the powerful
pro-life leader he saw with Francis Schaeffer lost his pro-life content when
appointed to a high-level office in the U.S. government.
At least, Koop could have applied to the
abortion issue the same principles he rightly applied to the smoking issue. But
he never did it. He was defeated by the left-wing pressures on him.
As many Presbyterians Koop maintained his
personal opposition to abortion as a private matter. After he left office, he
told medical students abortion violated their Hippocratic oath.
Koop
also shocked the Left and the Right (especially the Right) alike in the 1980s exactly
when the AIDS epidemic began by presenting HIV and AIDS not as moral issues,
but as a health issue. He shocked the Left because left-wingers did not expect
him to support homosexuality, and he shocked the Right because right-wingers expected
him to oppose homosexuality.
Gay activists have used the AIDS issue for
decades as a tool to get millions in taxpayer dollars to fund their movement
and agenda, and their victory was thanks to Koop.
Koop also maneuvered around uncooperative
Reagan administration officials in 1988 to send a pro-sodomy AIDS pamphlet to
more than 100 million U.S. households, the largest public “health” campaign ever
made by mailing. He promoted condoms, “protected” sodomy and sex education to children
to “stop” the spread of AIDS. Actually, his campaign increased homosexual activity
and activism.
Then, in the midst of a heated national
debate about how best to halt the spread of AIDS, Koop blocked the Reagan
administration’s plans for extensive testing. To the applause of gay groups,
Koop said the disclosure of the test results could ruin the careers of those
tested.
Koop’s speeches made him a hero to gay and
left-wing groups of America, including journalists. Gay activists chanted “Koop,
Koop” at his appearances and booed other officials of the Reagan administration.
Christian conservatives were furious,
saying Koop was promoting the gay agenda, while he kept pushing for condoms, “protected”
sodomy and sex education for schoolchildren.
Media coverage was generally quite
positive, with journalists defending Koop and attacking his Christian critics.
He became loved by journalists.
Koop personally opposed homosexuality and
believed sex should be saved for marriage. Yet, he never let his conservative
principles guide him in the Reagan administration, even though he was appointed
exclusively for his strong pro-life stances. He kept his conservative convictions
a private matter. The outspoken conservative of the 1970s disappeared in his
private life and never appeared in the public life of the Reagan
administration.
At least, Koop could have applied to the AIDS
and homosexual issues the same principles he rightly applied to the smoking
issue. But he never did it. He was defeated by the left-wing pressures on him.
So the greatest victory ever to the
homosexual movement, granting it the privilege to use the AIDS issue as a propaganda
machine to make gay groups wealthy, did not come from a left-wing leader in a
left-wing administration. It came from a devout, conservative pro-life Presbyterian
in the conservative Reagan administration. It came from a pro-life leader who
had been directly supervised by Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), the famous
Presbyterian theologian.
Koop in a government post is also a lesson
for pro-lifers and Christians. There are people fighting for pro-life and
Christian values just for opportunism. You cannot see their hearts, but if
given a government post, they will have no problem to let their hearts show their
real motivation.
The massive pro-life propaganda of Koop,
in books and movies, in the 1970s brought him massive fame, especially because
he was with Schaeffer. This propaganda was instrumental for Reagan to appoint
him. Yet, Koop disappointed Reagan and conservative Christians in the abortion
and homosexual issues.
The Koop case was a moral tragedy in the
Reagan administration and in the pro-life movement. He could have used his principles
— which he used successfully against smoking — against abortion, AIDS and
homosexuality, but he never did it.
If
smoking is harmful, what is abortion? What is sodomy? What is AIDS? Actually,
it made no sense to condemn smoking and exempt abortion and sodomy.
Koop was appointed by Reagan to show his
conservative stances, but he chose to hide them, for fear of left-wing
journalists and homosexualists.
Because of Koop, the most conservative Republican
administration in the modern U.S. history displeased conservatives and pleased
left-wingers as far as abortion, AIDS and homosexuality are concerned. It is
not what you expect when a conservative administration appoints a conservative
pro-life evangelical champion, but it is what you get when the convictions of
the conservative champion get heavily tested through too much power in a government
post.
With information from The Daily Beast, Associated
Press, ABC News, CNN, New York Times, Reuters and Banner of Truth.
Portuguese version of this article: De
campeão presbiteriano conservador pró-vida a herói de ativistas gays no governo
Reagan
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