Over the past five and a half years, President Bush signed 1,163 bills into law without vetoing a single one. This afternoon, the president cast his first veto, blocking legislation that would have opened the door to extraordinary medical progress through promising stem cell research.

“President Bush’s veto of stem-cell research is a sad but telling confirmation of his administration’s priorities,” said People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas. “When presented with legislation that invaded Americans’ privacy, restricted women’s access to health care, undermined constitutional rights, massively increased the federal debt we will leave to our children and grandchildren, provided huge tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate welfare to oil companies swimming in profits, President Bush never said no. But today, with legislation on his desk that would provide life-saving hope and treatment to millions of suffering American families, the President wielded his veto pen. With this unconscionable act, President Bush has sacrificed the interests of the people he is supposed to serve in order to placate the extremists of the Radical Religious Right. What a disappointment. What a disgrace.”