[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 112 (Friday, July 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8595-H8596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gilchrest). The gentleman from Texas 
[Mr. Stockman] will suspend for a moment. The gentleman will address 
his remarks to the Chair.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman yield?
  Mr. STOCKMAN. Let me do this real quick.
  Mr. DORNAN. Ask for unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 5 minutes and cannot have 
additional time. This is a 5-minute special order. The gentleman has 
2\1/2\ minutes remaining.
  Mr. STOCKMAN. I just want to say to the Sepaker, we got thousands of 
these little cards talking about a baby that was born halfway and 
coming out of the mother's birth canal. And what they do is they go in 
the back with the forceps and puncture the back of the head and suck it 
out. And I am in a district in which I was written by the Catholic 
diocese.
  Mr. DORNAN. Would the gentleman yield? It is not forceps. They do not 
even have an instrument of death for this. They use Mendelson's 
scissors and they shove them in and open them up to tear the back of 
the skull to take the brains out. They had to adapt a tool to do that.
  Mr. STOCKMAN. And I want to point out to the Speaker that we have 
received, and I am holding in my hand a letter which I will submit for 
the Record, we have in my district a good Catholic diocese, and the 
staff from there have signed this petition asking that the Congress 
override the President's veto.
  We had even Patrick Kennedy voting with us on this issue. It was a 
bipartisan vote, and I cannot believe that we have to override the 
President on it. They are going to be holding candlelight vigils all 
across America in September and I think once people find out about this 
issue and get educated on this issue, like my good friend from 
California has so articulately explained to the American people, they 
will unanimously support the Congress' effort to stop this sad tragedy 
in America today.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my good friend from California.
  Mr. DORNAN. Get this on Michael McCurry. I ask unanimous consent to 
put in the information my staff has gotten me. I did not give the year 
he was born. October 27, 1954. I first flew in a jet 6 days before 
that. He attended Princton from 1972 to 1976. Was he a kid, for God's 
sake? He graduated magna cum laude smoking pot. Do you know what that 
does? It tells kids you can use drugs and graduate cum laude.
  Mr. STOCKMAN. Mr. Speaker, the fact that Congress is still debating 
the legality of partial-birth abortion shows the decline of our 
Nation's moral and spiritual health. The truth is that this cruel and 
morbid procedure should end. My hope is that our Nation will soon 
legally recognize that the unborn must be protected from this immoral 
procedure.
  There is widespread consensus on this issue from Members of both 
parties. Our opposition to partial-birth abortion is rooted as much 
from our spiritual beliefs as from common sense. This procedure could 
hardly be more brutal in its execution and deserves to be outlawed.
  My constituents have overwhelmingly condemned this so-called medical 
procedure. For example, 24 staff members from the Catholic Diocese of 
Beaumont, TX, signed a letter urging me to vote in favor of overriding 
President Clinton's veto of H.R. 1833, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban 
Act.
  I insert this letter into the Record at this time.
                                         Diocesan Pastoral Office,


                                          Diocese of Beaumont,

                                       Beaumont, TX, May 24, 1996.
     Rep. Steve Stockman,
     9th District, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Rep. Stockman: Our staff here at the Catholic Diocese 
     of Beaumont write to urge you to vote to override President 
     Clinton's veto of HR 1833, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban 
     Act.
           Signed:
         Father Michael Jamail, Colleen Vice, Gail Hernandez, Anne 
           Steinman, Nancy Fontenot, Gertrude Morrison, Sandra 
           Borel, Deede Covington, Father Richard de Stefano, Rita 
           Frederick, Carolyn Koch, Rosalind Sanchez, Father

[[Page H8596]]

           James Vanderbilt, Joyce Borque, Mary Cooke, Marilyn 
           Vollmer, Evelyn E. Kummer, Marilyn Price, Karen Gilmer, 
           Father Stephen T. Smithers, Beverly Escamilla, Addie 
           Weems, S. Janice Matthews, Carol M. Duhon.

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