[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RIGHTFUL ROLE OF GOVERNMENT TO DEFEND THE DEFENSELESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Forbes] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the sentiments of my colleague 
from New York.
  Mr. Speaker, I take the well today to talk a little bit about an 
issue I think that is of great and paramount importance to both sides 
of the aisle that serve in this august body. For the last 15 months, we 
have watched as the House of Representatives struggles with public 
policy questions. What is the rightful role of government? To what 
extent do we fund these programs? What programs work? What programs do 
not work?
  For 15 months, it has been a very healthy, although at times 
contentious, debate. It gets at the very heart of what democracy is all 
about. Taking these issues to the American people, to the floor of the 
House of Representatives and having a good give and take. We are trying 
to understand, as we are on the threshold of a new millennium, where to 
take America. What are our priorities? And I would say, Mr. Speaker, 
that as we think about those priorities, we think about a government 
that most of us would like to be benevolent, caring, there for those 
who cannot help themselves.
  We need to think of the question that gets at the heart of the 
highest, most precious part of the human experience, and I speak with 
reference to those moments when a young woman and her husband, a young 
man and wife, learn the terrific news that there is going to be a birth 
of a child. Their excitement, their love, their exhilaration is 
unmatched by almost anything else that one could experience in life, 
and I do not think there is an American, whether they be described as 
pro-choice or pro-life, that cannot appreciate that very important and 
most precious moment in the human experience.
  It leaves me, Mr. Speaker, mystified, wondering if the rightful role 
of government is not to step forward, to indeed protect the most 
defenseless among us, that nurturing, growing life within the womb, 
that most precious experience in a woman's existence. What is the 
rightful role of government, I ask, if not to protect that defenseless 
life? Yet we had an issue, and I speak principally to the issue of the 
late-term partial birth abortion ban, and the question of government's 
rightful role to step in at a period when this baby, growing within the 
womb, is 4\1/2\ months along, or on the eve of a birth. Yet this 
procedure continues and will continue because a bill that was sent to 
the White House was rejected. Despite the safeguard stipulating that 
there must be an absolute threat to the life of the mother, the 
President chose to veto this bill. The same president who as Governor 
could have been at one point described as pro-life now sides with the 
radical left on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask again, what is the rightful role of government if 
not to step forward at these most important moments to defend the 
defenseless, to step forward for our children? Is there anything so 
precious in life, in society as the birth of a child, as the potential 
growth of a new human life? And yet, this partial birth abortion 
procedure, which some say is a rare occasion, well, I would say one 
occasion is too many. There are, as I have been told, some very 
infrequent times when the life of the mother is so threatened that this 
procedure is performed. But I am also told that the American Medical 
Association, its college of legislative people and the 12 doctors 
therein, have said that this is an unnecessary procedure.
  Mr. Speaker, as I yield the podium, I would just ask that if the 
rightful role of government is not to defend the defenseless, to defend 
precious life, then what is the role of government?

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