[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2880-H2881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1445

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Vucanovich). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized for 
5 minutes.

  [Mr. McINNIS addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter 
in the Extensions of Remarks.]

[[Page H2881]]



                       PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, even if President Clinton 
bows to the pressure of the pro-abortion lobby and vetoes the partial-
birth abortion ban, the fact that the Congress, in what will be, as it 
was previously, a bipartisan vote in support of the ban and the fact 
that the American people of all political persuasions, men and women of 
all ages, are beginning, and I mean just beginning, to face the truth 
and reality about the cruelty of abortion on demand will have made all 
of this worth the effort.
  I chair the subcommittee on International Operations and Human 
Rights. I also am chairman of the Helsinki Commission. I have been in 
this body now for some 16 years, Madam Speaker. I have always found 
when we work on human rights issues, it is never easy, whether it be 
trying to help a Soviet Jew, whether it be trying to help a persecuted 
Christian in the People's Republic of China, there are always these so-
called unwanted people everywhere. Regrettably, the human rights abuse 
in this country is that which is directed at the most innocent and the 
most defenseless of all human beings, unborn children. This is the 
violation of human rights in the United States of America in 1996, the 
killing of unborn children, 1\1/2\ million or so per year on demand, 
and most of them are for birth control reasons, not the hard cases, 
life of the mother or even rape and incest. They constitute a very 
small, infinitesimal number of the abortions. Most of the abortions are 
done on demand.
  Madam Speaker, I believe very strongly that the 22-year coverup of 
abortion methods, including chemical poisoning of babies is coming to 
an end. I think most people are beginning to realize, salt solutions 
are routinely injected into the baby's body, killing that baby, because 
of the corrosive impact of the salt. And they are appalled.
  Another method of abortion, the most commonly procured method, is the 
dismemberment, D&C suction method, where the baby's body is literally 
ripped to shreds. We have, because of the leadership of subcommittee 
Chairman Charles Canady's bill, hopefully, achieved the end of a very 
gruesome method of abortion, the partial-birth abortion method. This 
method in recent years has been done increasingly. It is being done in 
the later terms, in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th months of the babies' 
gestational ages. And, hopefully, even though the President may veto 
this, this will be the beginning of an effort to outlaw this sickening 
form of child abuse.
  This picture to my left is truly worth a thousand words. It shows 
what the doctor does, and I just would like to use the doctor who is 
one of the pioneers of this gruesome method. I will just very 
succinctly read his statement as to how this method is done. His name 
is Dr. Martin Haskell, a doctor who performs partial-birth abortions by 
the hundreds. He has said, and I quote,

       The surgeon takes a pair of blunt, curved Metzenbaum 
     scissors in the right hand. He carefully advances the tip 
     curved down along the spine under his middle finger until he 
     feels contact at the base of the skull under the tip of the 
     middle finger. The surgeon then forces the scissors into the 
     base of the skull. Having safely entered the skull, he 
     spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening. The surgeon then 
     removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into 
     this hole and evacuates the skull contents. When the catheter 
     is in place, he applies traction to the fetus, removing it 
     completely from the patient.

  What this so-called doctor is describing, Madam Speaker, is 
infanticide. The baby is partially born, and this so-called doctor then 
kills the baby in this hideous method. Hopefully, this legislation will 
get a second shot, not withstanding the President's veto, so we can 
outlaw this gruesome form of child abuse and banish it from this land.

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