 The address, the text of which is available from the Kennedy Library archives, stoked the concern of some Protestants preceding the presidential election, to which Senator Kennedy responded in a speech on religious freedom and the separation of church and state.In 1976, Criswell supported the election of the Republican U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., an Episcopalian, rather than the Southern Baptist Democratic nominee, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.Questioned in 1973 about the Supreme Court's decision in "Roe v. Wade" Criswell replied, "I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed."