In his speech at the Christian Coalition conference in Washington, D.C., he broadened his platform, articulating a conservative stance on both political and social issues.

Mr. Forbes recalled that when a reporter for the New Republic asked him, 'If you had to choose, which would you do first, establish a flat tax or abolish abortion?' he referred the reporter to the Declaration of Independence.

Among the God-endowed, 'unalienable rights' enumerated in that document, the right to life comes first, he pointed out. 'The right to life is not a state-endowed right,' Forbes asserted; 'it is a gift of God. Life begins at conception and ends only at natural death. 'It is time for all of us to find our voice and defend the sanctity of human life. That's why we have focused our attention on banning partial birth abortion. That's the first step on the road to banning abortions entirely.'

Mr. Forbes also urged the audience to fight against doctor-assisted suicide and the legalization of drugs.

Forbes spelled out his position on abortion in greater detail in a 1997 address to the Heritage Foundation. There he reasoned that because the nation lacks a consensus on abortion, change cannot be brought about 'with the stroke of a legislative pen,' but must be done with a gradual, step-by-step change in our culture and the law. 'We should start by banning partial-birth abortions, a euphemism for infanticide,' he said. From there, he advocates banning abortions for the purpose of sex selection, banning fetal tissue research, and ending all federal funding for abortions. He also supports parental notification and consent in the case of minors, and working to end late-term abortions.

During his 1996 presidential campaign, he was criticized by various pro-life activists as being pro-abortion. At first appearing reluctant to discuss the issue, he eventually stated that he would ultimately support banning abortion 'except in cases of genuine, life-threatening emergency, or rape and incest.'

In his speech before the Christian Coalition, only days after Kenneth Starr submitted his report to Congress, Mr. Forbes called for Congress to begin public impeachment hearings immediately. 'President Clinton has committed high crimes and misdemeanors; he has created a culture of hypocrisy and deceit. I believe he will and should be removed from the highest office in the land,' he said.

He also urged Congress to hold hearings on Clinton's 'other crimes,' such as Filegate, Travelgate, and the alleged abuse of the FBI and the Secret Service.

Mr. Forbes has been touring the country speaking out for various conservative causes, as the head of an issues organization he founded, shortly after his 1996 presidential bid, called Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity.

In an interview after his speech, Mr. Forbes told Defend Life that his parents had the greatest influence in shaping his conservative moral and political philosophy. 'They instilled in us a firm sense of right and wrong,' he recalled. 'We always went to church on Sunday. Religion was ever-present--low-key, but there.'

At high school, Brooks School in Massachusetts, he went to chapel service every day, he said: 'That was part of the environment.'

Asked how he planned to overcome the liberal bias of the mainstream media against any conservative candidate, he said that President Reagan had shown that if you were consistent with your message, and patient and persistent, your message would 'eventually get through the filters.' He also plans to ultilize talk radio and the internet so people can hear the unfiltered message themselves.

If he were to become president, his role in promoting the pro-life agenda, he said, would be to 'aggressively create a consensus, codify it, and work from that. Eventually, people will have a change of heart, and abortion will be extinct in America.'

Mr. Forbes, 51, is president and CEO of Forbes, Inc., as well as editor-in-chief of Forbes, the nation's leading business magazine.

One of five children, he and Sabina, his wife of 27 years, have five daughters. They reside in Bedminster, New Jersey.