[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8816-H8822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht] is recognized 
for 60 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for the opportunity to 
spend some time tonight to talk about an issue that has probably 
generated more mail and more phone calls and more responses from our 
constituents than virtually any issue since I joined the Congress just 
18 months ago. I speak tonight about the issue of partial birth 
abortions.
  I think we need to first of all talk a little bit about what in fact 
a partial birth abortion is. I had hoped to have some charts to show to 
my colleagues and those who may be watching on cable TV tonight what 
exactly a partial birth abortion is. But let me just say that in many 
respects it is a late term abortion in which the baby is virtually 
completely delivered and only the head of the baby is allowed to remain 
inside the womb, and then the doctor, the abortionist I think is a more 
accurate term, the abortionist takes a scissors and inserts that 
scissors into the back of the baby's brain, then using a very powerful 
suction device actually sucks out the brains of the baby. Then the baby 
is delivered. Of course, the baby is delivered dead.
  It is true that in many respects in some of the abortions that are 
performed using this procedure, the babies are badly deformed and they 
have very little chance of surviving. I think we have to be honest and 
say that in some respects that is true. But in many respects, that is 
not true. Many times this is used just as a simple late term, what I 
would describe as a late term version of protracted birth control, 
where the baby is actually being destroyed simply because the baby is 
inconvenient to the mother at that particular point in her life.
  On April 10, 1996, President Bill Clinton used his veto pen to 
perpetuate a tragedy that results in the destruction of innocent 
babies. It was on that date that the President vetoed H.R. 1833, the 
Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
  I believe that every abortion actually involves two victims, both the 
baby and the mother, and I believe that every abortion sadly takes the 
life of an innocent child. I do understand politically that the 
American people and

[[Page H8817]]

the Nation has not yet reached a consensus on saying that all abortions 
should be banned in this country. But I do believe that in late term 
abortions like this, particularly when they are performed with this 
grisly procedure, that I think most Americans are prepared to say that 
this procedure ought to be outlawed and we ought to say that this is 
one procedure that is not legal under our system of laws.

  As I said, in most respects the baby is pulled from the mother's womb 
legs first, and then a scissors is inserted in the baby's skull, 
opening them to enlarge a hole so that a suction catheter can then be 
inserted and the baby's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to 
collapse. The difference between this heinous procedure and homicide is 
literally only a matter of inches.
  Regardless of one's position on abortion, and I do understand and I 
try to be empathetic and sympathetic to those who have different views 
than mine about the whole system of abortion and what should be legal 
and what should not be legal in this United States, it is clear that a 
vast majority of Americans supporting banning this particular 
procedure. In fact, I think the more that the American people learn 
about this particular procedure, the more that they say that we cannot 
be a society that tolerates this.
  If you look back to our history in our earlier discussions about the 
budget and other issues, there was some reference to our Founding 
Fathers. I would like to share with you a couple of things that our 
Founding Fathers said that I think in some respects reflect upon this 
particular issue.
  Thomas Jefferson said that if you give the American people the truth, 
the Republic will be saved. I think the more that the American people 
learn about this particular procedure, the more they learn the truth 
about this procedure, the more that they will demand that public 
policymakers take the correct action and make it illegal.
  Jefferson also wrote these immortal words when he talked about we the 
people, he said that we were endowed by our Creator with certain 
inalienable rights and that among those are the right to life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness.
  I for one do not believe that it was purely coincidence that he 
listed the right to life as chief among them. And I think that he 
understood, the Founding Fathers understood and, frankly, I think if 
Americans are honest with themselves they understand, that life is 
something more than just a biological accident, that it is a gift from 
a power greater than that of any government.
  While I have already admitted that we probably do not have the 
political consensus to eliminate abortion from our American system 
today, I think that there is a growing consensus that this particular 
procedure can be and should be outlawed.
  It is not really surprising that the American Medical Association's 
legislative counsel, a panel consisting of 12 doctors, unanimously 
voted last year to recommend banning this procedure. One of the 
doctors, the AMA counsel, described the partial birth abortion 
procedure as ``basically repulsive.''
  Proponents of this heinous partial birth abortion procedure, 
including President Clinton, contend that there are legitimate reasons 
for doctors to use it. But under closer scrutiny, it is clear that 
their defense of this procedure is akin to infanticide and is based on 
inaccurate or false information.
  First, Mr. Speaker, let me say that partial birth abortion proponents 
contend that this procedure is primarily used on babies with 
abnormalities or deformities. Well, Dr. Martin Haskell, who has 
performed more than 1,000 partial birth abortions told the American 
Medical News that 80 percent of the partial birth abortions he 
performed between 20 and 25 weeks, or about 4\1/2\ to 5\1/2\ months of 
gestation, were ``purely elective.''

  Second, partial birth abortion proponents claim that babies die in 
the womb as a result of the anesthesia administered to the mother and 
therefore they do not feel any pain from the procedure. The American 
Society of Anesthesiologists set the record straight. When its 
president, Dr. Norig Ellison, said that those claims have ``absolutely 
no basis in scientific fact.''
  Third, partial birth abortion proponents argue that this procedure is 
often necessary to protect the health of the mother. But again, Dr. 
Pamela Smith, director of medical education in the department of 
obstetrics and gynecology at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, says 
``there are absolutely no obstetrical situations encountered in this 
country which require a partially delivered human fetus to be destroyed 
to preserve the life or health of the mother.''
  I might add, Mr. Speaker, that in the bill that was drafted and sent 
to the President, we made certain allowances where if in fact the 
health or the life of the mother was at stake, that these procedures 
could go forward.
  Moreover, though, Dr. Smith says that the partial birth abortion 
itself poses maternal health risks. Because the procedure involves 3 
days of forceful dilation to the cervix, the mother risks damaging her 
reproductive organs. Uterine rupture is also a documented complication 
associated with this procedure.
  Opponents of the partial birth abortion ban advocate including an 
exception to the ban of the health of the mother, as I said. Why? 
Because the ban opponents know that the exception would render these 
bills meaningless. The U.S. Supreme Court has defined health as 
including ``all factors--physical, psychological, familial, and the 
women's age--relevant to the well-being of the patient.'' Therefore, 
the health exception would allow abortionists to continue to perform 
these partial birth abortions for reasons such as depression or youth 
of the mother.
  Despite the misinformation campaign being waged by the proponents of 
this violent procedure, President Clinton and the abortion advocates 
have placed themselves outside the mainstream of American thinking. In 
fact, the Roman Catholic Church and the leaders of that church are so 
upset with the President's veto that they held a press conference to 
denounce his decision. They also recently distributed over 27 million 
postcards at churches all across the Nation. They have been mobilizing 
their parishioners to bombard Congress with one message: ``Override the 
President's veto and outlaw certain late-term abortions.''
  We checked with the post office here at the U.S. House of 
Representatives today, and they tell us there is a backlog of over 1.1 
million of these cards which are coming to Members of Congress.
  I want to talk also tonight a little bit about one particular hero, a 
gentleman by the name of John Joyce who is the president of the 
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen. He is one 
person who broke ranks with the AFL-CIO and rejected its endorsement of 
President Clinton because of President's veto of partial birth 
abortions. I want to talk a little bit about that. This is a gentleman 
I think some Members will remember. We have probably remembered the 
book that was written by John Kennedy called ``Profiles in Courage.'' 
And I would say that if a new version of that book were being written, 
certainly John Joyce, the president of the International Union of 
Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen would certainly deserve a chapter 
because it took an enormous amount of courage for him to stand up and 
say that President Clinton was wrong because of his veto of partial 
birth abortions and that he could not support him.

  Joyce said that the veto is so, and I quote, he said: It so outraged 
him that he could not support President Clinton even though he thought 
the President would be much better for working people than would Bob 
Dole. I could only go so far as my mind and conscience are willing to 
take me.
  This is one example, and I think there are many examples, of 
Americans across the country who have said that enough is enough. This 
is one area where I think the President has gone too far. John Joyce, 
as I say, should find himself a chapter in the next version of 
``Profiles in Courage'' because he had the courage to stand up and say 
this is wrong and, despite what my union says, despite what the members 
say, despite what the labor bosses in Washington say, I cannot support 
President Clinton because of this particular issue.
  I am pleased to have with me tonight and join with me someone who has 
been a longtime advocate for the rights

[[Page H8818]]

of the unborn and someone who particularly understands the whole issue 
of partial birth abortions, probably is much more of an expert in Roman 
Catholic teaching than I have ever been. I am pleased to have join me 
tonight the gentleman from Orange County, CA, the Honorable Robert K. 
Dornan. I would yield to him for a few moments to talk a little bit 
about this issue, what we can do, where we stand and perhaps where we 
can go from here.

                              {time}  2015

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. If there is anything 
I know about theology or philosophy or rhetoric or logic or ethics more 
than you do, it is only because I am years older than you are and you 
are catching fast on me. Before you are my tender years you will have 
gone beyond me.
  My wife was down in the cellar filing unbelievable reams of 
mimeographed documents, books, and paperwork, and she came across the 
House Ethics Manual. You got one a long time ago. They gave you one 
over a year and a half ago.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Was not that long ago.
  Mr. DORNAN. Right. And this particular one, this current Congress, it 
is not the last Congress, it is the 102d Congress, April 1992, and it 
is published by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which 
is loosely referred to as the Ethics Committee, probably because their 
manual is called the House Ethics Manual.
  Now my wife opened this up because of a recent dust-up around here 
between Republican Members, and she came to the opening page. It has 
the committee two Congresses ago. Lou Stokes was the chairman. Half of 
these people are defeated or left, like Fred Grandy and others. Jon Kyl 
has moved on with distinction to the U.S. Senate from his great State 
of Arizona.
  And my wife looked at the first page, and it says: ``The code of 
official conduct, House rule 43,'' and it is good ethics material. ``A 
member, officer, employee of the House of Representatives shall conduct 
himself at all times in a manner which shall reflect credibly upon the 
House of Representatives.''
  Give me a drum roll; that is a given.
  Do not seduce a page.
  Do not seduce or corrupt the pages or you get kicked out.
  Wrong. You can do that; not get kicked out, only get a censor. turn 
your back on the House, use the Lord's name in vain in the Speakers 
lobby, and get reelected in one of our original 13 colonies five more 
times. That was the darkest day in the history of this House in this 
century.
  Then my wife comes to, still in the prologue, those little tiny roman 
numeral fives and so forth, Roman numeral V: Code of Ethics for 
Government Service. And this comes to the core of what you were saying 
about the head of that union. Which union was it; not the Carpenters 
and Joiners, the----
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Bricklayers.
  Mr. DORNAN. Bricklayers Union, where you put principle above 
everything, faith, family, and freedom. Faith comes first before your 
country and freedom.
  Code of Ethics for Government Service:
  ``Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring'', 
passed 1958. The year I got off active duty I was 24 years old, flying 
F-100 supersonic Sabres. Fifty-eight. Jim Wright, the former Speaker, 
was only in his sophomore year here. Ike was still President. Go down 
to only 143 Republicans from 221 when he got elected. So this is Ike's 
third to last year:
  ``Resolved by the House, Senate concurring, that it is the sense of 
the Congress that the following Code of Ethics should be adhered to by 
all government employees, including officers.''
  Mr. Gutknecht, Mr. Dornan are included here.
  Code of ethics for Government service; there are 10 of them. Ten 
commandments.
  Any person in service should, colon, 10 things listed.
  First, put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country 
above loyalty to government persons, to party or to your department, 
talking to the executive branch out there, but this would apply to the 
Supreme Court, to every branch of government, every elected person, and 
it is applicable to the States, the counties and cities: loyalty to the 
highest moral principles, above everything, and to your country, above 
loyalty to any government person from a President to a Speaker to a 
Senate leader to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and ahead of 
your party certainly and your department. It is high moral principle; 
that is, the principles of our Creator that was mentioned several times 
in the Declaration of Independence.
  Now what happened with the head of the Bricklayers Union and what 
happened with the Democratic Governor of one of our biggest States, the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with Bob Casey, was they said:
  Look, I want to go to heaven.
  I hope they thought that. I know Bob Casey did.
  I want to go to heaven here. I want to do what is right.
  If they are a good Protestant, they say:
  Wait a minute. Billy Graham went to the White House on May 1 and told 
the President you cannot veto something that is passed with a huge 
majority in the House and Senate that involves delivering a baby into 
this world four-fifths, and then you stop the birth process, bringing 
distress to the delivery mother, and hold the head inside the birth 
canal while you attack it in the back, stab it in the back of that 
perfectly formed little head formed by God, stab it in the back of its 
head and remove its brains, suction out that perfect little formed 
brain. You cannot do that.
  What is the gentleman's name, the head of the Bricklayers Union; I 
want to----
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. John, and I am sorry I turned it over to the--John 
Joyce was the gentleman's name, an American hero. And if the 
gentleman----
  Mr. DORNAN. Bob Casey, John Joyce. American heroes, yes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Absolutely, and the world is full of them. But I just 
want to bring to your attention a quote also from one of the Framers of 
our Constitution.
  John Adams said that our Constitution was intended for a moral and 
religious people. It would be wholly inadequate for any other.
  I think they understood, and I think we understand, and I think the 
American people understand the morality, principles, values; you cannot 
separate them from our Constitution or even from our codified law. In 
fact, I think many Americans forget sometimes that the Founding Fathers 
believed that the law, the body of law, was the bare minimum of 
expectation from moral behavior, that there ought to be actually a 
higher standard, and yet somehow we have been reduced to the lowest 
common denominator.
  And I think one of the reasons this whole issue of the partial-birth 
abortion, the reason I think it cuts so many people right down to the 
bone and the reason it has generated so much interest and so many 
letters and so many calls and so many postcards from our constituents 
is because I think they begin to understand that there is something 
happening in this country, and it is not just partial-birth abortion. 
It is about the basic unraveling of the moral fiber of this culture, 
and our Constitution was intended for a moral and religious people. It 
would be wholly inadequate for any other.
  Those words were true when John Adams said them almost 200 years ago. 
They are absolutely true today, and I think--so in many respects 
partial-birth abortion and the unraveling of our society, the 
unraveling of the moral fabric, are all sort of symptoms of a greater 
disease.

  That is not to say that I think the American people are turning to 
the Congress or they are turning to politicians to become the keepers 
of the moral flame, but I do think that they expect us to be a good 
example, and I think they do expect us to set certain standards and 
certain minimum standards, and whether or not we can totally make all 
abortions illegal or whether we even should, I think is a separate 
question. We certainly can, and I think the American people are saying 
loudly and clearly we can and we should make this particular grisly 
procedure illegal here in the United States.
  Mr. DORNAN. Well let me show how the courage of a John Joyce, of a 
Robert Casey, former Governor of the

[[Page H8819]]

State where my mother was raised, the beautiful Pennsylvania; let me 
tell you about a letter dated today that was just given to me by Edward 
J. O'Hearn, the chairman of the pro-life committee of the Ancient Order 
of Hibernians.
  Look at that beautiful Irish flag with an American flag.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Are not they Irish? Is that not the ultimate Irish 
organization?
  Mr. DORNAN. Roman name for Ireland, Hibernia; and Caldonia for 
Scotland.
  Now this out of Louisville, KY. Edward O'Hearn is, as I said, 
chairman of pro-life. Listen to what he writes to Newt Gingrich.
  Dear Mr. Speaker, since 1992 Republican elected officials and 
Republican spokespeople have been critical of the Democratic Party for 
the treatment of Gov. Robert Patrick Casey at the 1992 Democratic 
Convention because of his refusal to back down on a matter of conscious 
and religious conviction, the abortion issue.
  Well, he says with exclamation points, no more. Your treatment of 
Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, an Irish Catholic, and I am 
going to leave out the next Irish Catholics because I am cooling my 
jets here as the conference chairman suggested, on the same issue ranks 
right up there with the insult to Casey and Catholics in general by the 
Clinton team in 1992, and that insult continues.
  Remember that George Bush was on the ramp of Detroit with the Holy 
Father when the Pope said, stand up for life. And Barbara and George 
Bush, then the President and First Lady, went yes, yes, yes. And the 
last time Clinton stiffed him because he was leaving from Baltimore 
Airport, I was there, and the Pope said again, we must defend and 
protect innocent human life.
  The Governor sat on his hands, the Catholic Lieutenant Governor, 
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, sat on her hands, Polish Catholic Barbara 
Mikulski sat on her hands. I started applauding with my grandson who is 
14, and we made enough noise for all the other VIP's and the whole 
crowd behind started to cheer. But Paul Sarbanes, a Greek Orthodox 
Christian, he would not applaud; Joe Biden would not applaud, Catholic 
Senator from Delaware; nobody would applaud the Pope except me in the 
second row. And then later, the Secret Service brought me up and stood 
me next to a wonderful lady, Tipper Gore, and we said goodbye to the 
Pope, and I did not know if he would ever have the health to come back 
here again. But what a courageous and saintly fight this man has made 
for life.
  And he said this culture of death in Europe and in this country has 
got to be reversed if we are to survive in this mortal existence of 
ours. And instead of surviving, we have upped the ante so one 
Republican and one independent and 65 people in this House a couple of 
days ago voted for homosexual marriage, and 15 Republicans, 15 out of 
236, voted for infanticide.

  So I continue from the Ancient Order of Hibernians. In April of this 
year the Ancient Order of Hibernians rescinded our invitation to 
President Clinton to address our national convention because he vetoed 
the partial-birth abortion ban, hereafter known as the partial birth 
infanticide. Your actions against Representative Smith are directly 
related to their refusal--I left somebody else out there--to compromise 
their convictions on partial-birth abortion.
  Not really so in my case. I had known about votes involved at the 
time.
  We would be remiss if we did not also blast your actions as publicly 
and forthrightly as we condemn the actions of President Clinton. It 
should come as no surprise that we support the declaration of 
conscience resolution--this is making the rounds around here now. A 
copy of our letter is being sent to the American bishops, the American 
cardinals, the Ancient Order of Hibernian membership, and leaders of 
other Catholic organizations in America, plus Catholic newspaper in the 
United States of America. Sincerely Edward J. O'Hearn, chairman, pro-
life committee, Ancient Order of Hibernians.
  Now, Mr. Gutknecht, we do not need to create fights like that. There 
are votes that above and beyond any votes. As I told all of our 
leadership today quite respectfully and quite politely why this 
infanticide vote was different, I pointed out to Speaker Gingrich, to 
Majority Leader Armey, to Majority Whip DeLay, to conference Chairman 
John Boehner, and to fighting Bill Paxon of New York, chairman of the 
National Republican Congressional Committee, I said: Mr. Paxon, with 
all due respect, if your wonderful wife, a fighting Member here, had 
not broken her unbroken string, and I use their language of pro-choice 
votes, and if she had not voted to ban partial-birth infanticide 
abortion, she would not be the keynote speaker at our convention.

                              {time}  2030

  He was silent. Some others conceded it. The gentlewoman from New York 
[Mrs. Kelly], who is the cause of all this controversy, because she is 
1 of the 15 that voted for infanticide, she is a polite, wonderful 
lady. She conceded to me  standing right there that if the gentlewoman 
from New York, Ms. Molinari, had not voted with the majority of both 
parties to ban this infanticide, partial birth abortion, she said, 
using the verb, concede, ``I,'' this is Sue Kelly, ``I concede Susan 
would not be the keynote speaker of the convention.''
  I said, ``Pardon me for using a double entendre, and I do do 
deliberately, this is a killer vote.'' In other words, if it can kill 
your speaking at the convention, then it has an aspect to it that is 
beyond a 1,000 out of 1,001 votes around here.
  It is like the homosexual marriage vote, homosexual marriage. If 
anybody other than a lame duck or possibly a write-in Member from your 
neck of the woods, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Gunderson], if 
anybody but him had voted for this, they would be in deep trouble 
getting reelected in a Republican primary or even in a Republican or in 
a general election as a Republican.
  We have pushed the envelope here, if I may use a test pilot's term. 
That is why I said in this well, standing right where you are at that 
leadership lectern, and the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Frank, 
said, if you want this whole debate to be characterized by the last 
speaker's mention, so be it. Do you know what I said? I predicted in 3 
years we would be debating pedophilia.
  When I left the floor I started thinking about it. Other Members came 
up to me and said, how about a year or two from now? How about a year 
from now? Because there is already a term for it by the activist 
movements around this country, the hedonist and sodomy movements, 
transgenerational sex. That is all. That is what they want to call it.
  If an adult, as in ancient Greece, which destroyed the Golden Age of 
Pericles, if an adult can con a child into consensual sex, which is 
impossible by the laws of all States when you involve a minor, that is 
what statutory rape is about. But if you can somehow or other act like 
the child seduced you or it was consensual, then who is to stand in the 
way of that? And it is now called pedophilia chic, and the movement is 
beginning.
  For anybody whose brain circuits are being short-circuited by me 
tonight, this is the way we all felt about homosexual marriage last 
year, certainly 5 years ago, and certainly when I got here. I never 
thought we would ever debate in this Chamber, after I was sworn in in 
1977, delivering a child four-fifths of the way in the birth process, 
from the birth canal, hold it in the mother's womb--I wish I had had 
this line in the debate--causing distress of the mother; where is the 
help to the mother and the relief--causing distress, an interruption in 
the birth process, so they can stab it in the back with a pair of 
Mendelson scissors and open up a wound to suction out the brains?
  This is unbelievable. And what is absolutely short-circuiting my 
centers of logic is that in California there should be a 29 percent gap 
between Clinton, who faced off against Billy Graham, the head of his 
own Southern Baptist Church; the Pope in Rome; the Greek Orthodox; the 
folks in all of Islam, that is why they call us the Great Satan; all 
ethicists around the world worth a farthing, he faces the whole world 
down and vetoes the majority in both Houses, and does not drop a point 
in the polls. How do you fathom that, my distinguished colleague?

[[Page H8820]]

  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Dornan], I am afraid I cannot explain that. It is one 
of the most troubling things we have confronted in this Congress, that 
we have watched the unraveling of our moral fabric. And somehow the 
media, and I am not one to point fingers or point blame, because I am 
not a fault-finder. The bad news is that I think the American people 
have somewhat become numbed to this kind of thing.
  I think there needs to be a reawakening. When the Pope and the 
Catholic Church, and there have only been a handful of people who have 
received official condemnation of this Vatican, of the Vatican in 
general. It is a very short list. It is a rather infamous list. Yet, he 
now finds himself on that list.
  Mr. DORNAN. Let us reconstruct that list that Mr. Clinton finds 
himself on: Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Mu'ammar Qadhafi of Libya, and 
is Hafez Assad from Syria on there? But Rafsanjani is, the Iranian 
controlling oligarchy there in Tehran.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. There are only about four or five of some of the most 
despicable people in the world.
  Mr. DORNAN. Pol Pot, Pol Pot, from the Killing Fields. He is on that 
list that the Pope has condemned. He came into office in 1978 in the 
killing fields in Cambodia, with the death after 33 days of John Paul 
I, making him the first. That was in 1978.
  I remember I was correcting remarks, I had to intercept them at the 
general Post Office, and I thought, this is worth reflecting upon. I 
said, my Lord, the college of cardinals met for days. The puffs of 
white smoke went up, they picked somebody, and I said, God said no, I 
am taking him to heaven. Try again. I did not want that. And they 
picked, instead of the wonderful Italian, the bishop of Venice, the 
Cardinal of Venice, they picked this Polish Pope.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Karol Wojtyla.
  Mr. DORNAN. Karol Wojtyla. And Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and a 
couple of Catholics, Lech Walesa, pulled down the evil empire. It is 
amazing.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. I will never forget, and I think the American People 
and the American press did not really pick up on this, but there was a 
particular pint in history when there was a lot of fear that the 
Soviets were going to--when Lech Walesa was leading the Solidarity 
movement in Poland, there was a lot of belief that the Soviets were 
going to move in with tanks to reoccupy Poland. There was one 
particular moment in history where a man of enormous courage literally 
sent a message to the Soviets that if you come to Poland, I will be 
there to meet you. That is the kind of courage that it took.
  Mr. DORNAN. That was the Pope.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. He looked them down. It was a moment in history that, 
again. I do not think most people realize, or it did not get the kind 
of publicity it needed. But it took an enormous amount of courage for 
the Holy Father to say to the Soviet empire that ``If you invade my 
motherland, I will be there to meet you.'' And I think in some 
respects, that, and the time that Ronald Reagan went to Berlin and he 
stood before the wall and he said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, if you mean what 
you say, then tear down this wall.''
  Mr. DORNAN. It echoed.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. If you look at the story of history, it has been 
extraordinarily brave people who have had the courage to say, this is 
wrong and it must stop. And I think we have reached a point, 
particularly on the issue of partial birth abortions, where people of 
courage must stand and say, this is wrong and it must stop. And whether 
it is the gentleman from California, Robert K. Dornan, or the gentleman 
from Minnesota, Gil Gutknecht, or thousands and millions of Americans, 
saying to this Congress and to this Government that ``You've gone too 
far; that the moral fabric has frayed too far. We must take back our 
country. We must be a people of moral conscience. We must be a people 
of moral fiber,'' because we cannot survive.

  We have lots of problems, and a lot of them are economic. We talk 
about the budget and we talk about the deficit. But if we really boil 
them down, they really come down to this basic view of morality, and 
our responsibility not only to ourselves but our responsibility to our 
fellow human beings.
  As someone who came from my State, the late Senator Hubert Humphrey, 
one of the most famous quotes I remember from Hubert Humphrey was this. 
He said ``If you love your God, you must love his children.'' If we 
must love our children, we must love the smallest and the most innocent 
of them.
  We cannot stop all abortions. I will agree, this is a political 
environment, and we are a nation of laws and not of men. I cannot 
enforce my morality or my views on other people. But when you have 70 
to 80 to 90 percent of the American people saying that partial birth 
abortion is wrong and it ought to be outlawed in the United States of 
America, then the Congress ought to respond.
  That is the bad news, that we have gone this far. The good news is 
this: That we are only a few votes away in the House and in the Senate 
of overriding this terrible veto. I think we are going to be given an 
opportunity, if not in the next week, then certainly when we come back 
after the August recess, to correct this wrong.
  I think if the American people, and I am not just talking about the 
Catholic people, I am talking about people of faith of every religion, 
and I am even talking about people who are not necessarily religious 
people, but who do have a very deep and abiding sense of fundamental 
morality, if they will send a clear message to the Congress and to this 
government here in Washington, I think we have a golden opportunity to 
reverse the course and begin to say that life is sacred, it is a gift 
from a power greater than that of any government, and there are some 
points where we can honestly say that we have gone too far. This 
certainly is one of them.
  I have a deep and abiding faith in the American people, as Ronald 
Reagan did. Ronald Reagan believed in the honesty and the integrity and 
the morality of the American people. If you give the people the truth, 
the Republic will be saved. That is what this debate is about.
  This is one point where I think we can made a difference. Frankly, as 
John Kennedy said, this is one point where we must.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to recall something, if the 
gentleman will yield further.
  On May 2, the day after Rev. Billy Graham, who has given his whole 
life to preaching morality, ethics, and the good news of our Savior, he 
met with Clinton in the Oval Office and he said to him, respectfully, 
you must not let your veto stand. Let them override it, or encourage 
it. I do not know how we are going to break some hearts over there in 
the other Chamber.
  The next day he came to what I have taken to calling, because it is, 
the secular nave of our cathedral of government, the rotunda of our 
Capitol. The first time I went in there as a little kid, it was like a 
church. I ask that of constituents. They say, ``It is like a cathedral. 
It is like the nave of a beautiful cathedral, St. Paul's in London, St. 
Peter's in Rome, to a much smaller degree.''

  In there, with about five rows of international press bleachers built 
on the east wing, and with Billy Graham and his wife of 53 years, Ruth, 
with their back to Grant and Lincoln, and a POW-MIA flag, and I want to 
speak about that for the better part of an hour tonight, how we have 
sold out our missing-in-action families, he very thoughtfully, to all 
the leadership, Bob Dole was still there as the leader with his 
wonderful wife, Elizabeth, Tom Daschle, my friend from many years in 
this House was there as the Democrat leader in the Senate, and there 
was Senator Byrd looking up with respectful awe as a member of his 
particular denomination, all the Senate leaders on our side, I did not 
see Marianne, the First Lady of this House, but I saw Speaker Gingrich 
and I saw the gentlemen from Texas, Mr. Armey, and Mr. Delay, right 
down the line of our leaders, the gentleman from Missouri, Dick 
Gephardt, the Democratic leader, the gentleman from Michigan, David 
Bonior, they were all there.
  Billy Graham said ``This is a Nation on the brink of self-
destruction.'' You could have heard a pin drop, except I involuntarily 
let out one of these youthful ``yeses,'' ``yes,'' and scared

[[Page H8821]]

the press, because I was standing back by them. I just kind of looked 
up and, ``That is right.'' There was this quiet. That was May 2; June 
2, July 2. We are coming up on August 2, almost 3 months later.
  I honestly feel, I would say to the gentleman, that is went in one 
ear and went out the other of all of our leaders. Because they 
understand what I say to them. Billy Graham was not addressing--the 
occasion was he was getting the Congressional Gold Medal unanimously 
from both Chambers. He was not talking about a 21st B-2 bomber. He was 
not even talking about the budget battle, although there are huge moral 
ramifications to unloading immorally a ton of debt, $5.5 trillion worth 
of debt on grandchildren not even born yet. He was talking about these 
social issues: Homosexual marriage and infanticide abortion. He is 
talking about the unraveling of the family and our social fabric, that 
we are on the verge of self-destruction.
  In a wonderful meeting at 1:30 this afternoon, with those five 
leaders on our side and the gentleman from New Jersey, Chris Smith and 
myself, Chris said if he were an activist, pro-abortion activist, he 
would not try to join the Democratic Party. They own that party, 
temporarily, praise God, we pray. He said ``I would come in the 
Republican party and keep it,'' and Chris Smith's words were good, he 
said ``Keep our party conflicted and confounded and confused.''
  I added to it, and nobody wanted to hear this, that if I were a 
homosexual activist, starting my career, instead of ending it 16 years 
later under a cloud, I would join the Republican Party to also work 
within this party, because they open the other temporarily, good Lord, 
we hope, to come into the Republican Party and create conflict, to 
conflict us, to use it as a verb, conflict, to confound people and to 
confuse people. The battleground has become the Republican Party.

                              {time}  2045

  That is why, deliberately paraphrasing Billy Graham, now that I have 
time to say it, I paraphrase Reverend Graham, the Republican party is a 
party on the brink of self-destruction. We have 99 days, let us make it 
98 when we wake up in the morning, 98 days when we wake up to election 
night.
  I saw George Bush, our President, alone in the Oval Office, just the 
two of us, for 20 minutes, 97 days before the election of 1992 when he 
lost, November 3, so the date would have been July 27. He had 2 days 
less to campaign than Bob Dole will have.
  I said, ``Chief,'' the only time I addressed President Bush other 
than ``Mr. President'' was a term of affection, I said, ``Chief, when 
do we fight? When do we begin to fight back? This guy's ahead of you,'' 
meaning Clinton. ``You've got to fight. Do you want him walking around 
the hallowed halls of this White House?''
  And George Bush, an honorable 1958 veteran, Navy combat carrier 
attack pilot, flinched, ``Ooh, Bob.'' He did not want to think about 
Clinton. I said ``We've got to fight.''
  Now here we are 98 days out in the morning. I am not going to be 
meeting ex-Senator Bob Dole in any White House, with Air Force One and 
marshaling the whole impact of the incumbency. Mr. Clinton has got all 
that going for him. I think in 4 more years of what we have seen in the 
last 3\1/2\ years, we are not just a party on the brink of self-
destruction, kick it up to what Billy Graham said, we are a nation on 
the brink. On the brink.
  It is these issues that brought the gentleman to the floor with his 
wonderful special order tonight that better kick the American people 
into high gear, and really everybody who understands what family is, 
even if it is a single mother, because our friend Vice President Dan 
Quayle was always misunderstood, misquoted.
  I had a CEO of one of the biggest communication outfits in the world 
say, and this was just the other night, and this man is big, Manhattan. 
He said, ``You know, they may have killed the messenger, Dan Quayle, 
politically but, boy, he changed the landscape of America.''
  Values is the core of all our issues that we are fighting, and if you 
do not think so, listen to how many times the Clintons use the word 
values, values, values, values, over and over. So I am sure certainly 
happy that the gentleman took this special order tonight.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I am not nearly as pessimistic as the 
gentleman from California, because if we look at history, and it was 
sort of underscored when we talked about what happened with the Polish 
Pope who warned the Soviets, or when Ronald Reagan went to Berlin and 
he said that if the Soviets, if Mikhail Gorbachev meant what he said, 
then he should tear down this wall. I happen to believe that words have 
meaning, that ideas matter, and that actions have consequences. If you 
study history, every great movement, every great change in national 
attitudes has started with one person or a handful of people who had 
the courage to speak the truth.
  There is a book coming out that was written by all of us freshmen. 
One of the chapters is written by one of my colleagues from Indiana, 
John Hostettler. He wrote a chapter about a gentleman by the name of 
Maplethorpe who was a member of the British House of Commons in the 
late 18th and early 19th century in Great Britain.
  One of the things that Mr. Maplethorpe tried to do was to end the 
slave trade in Europe. Basically he said, ``This is morally wrong and 
it must stop.'' At first he was laughed out of the House of Commons. 
Particularly the elites of that particular point in history said that 
he was ridiculous, they demeaned him in every way they could, but 
Maplethorpe did not give up.

  Mr. Speaker, the one thing that we know is that facts are stubborn 
things and truth is an incredibly powerful weapon. The more we learn 
about this partial-birth abortion, the more we realize that the 
American people can see through this smoke screen, they know that it is 
wrong, they know that it is morally wrong, they know that it should 
stop, and if only a handful of us have the courage to say to the 
American people that partial-birth abortions are wrong and they should 
be stopped, and we have got to stop unraveling this moral fabric that 
has made this country the greatest country in the history of the world, 
then I think we can begin to roll back the clock, because facts are 
stubborn things. Truth is a powerful weapon. All we have to do is speak 
the truth.
  The gentleman quoted Billy Graham. It is a great quote, that this 
society is on the brink of destruction. It was barely reported in the 
next day's press.
  Mr. DORNAN. It did not make the evening news at all. It just showed 
in silent that he got the Gold Medal from Congress.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. But, nonetheless, I believe that words have meaning, 
that actions have consequences, and that ideas matter. In the long 
light of history, whether or not it was well reported beyond the dome 
of this Capitol building, I think the American people believe that 
Billy Graham was right.
  He recently came to Minneapolis and he spoke to I do not know how 
many hundreds of thousands of people, both directly and indirectly 
through television. Billy Graham is one who has the courage of his 
convictions. He, like the Pope, has been willing to stand up and say, 
this is right, this is wrong, and this should stop.
  Mr. DORNAN. Would the gentleman want to add a note of excitement to 
his special order tonight? My middle daughter of 5 sons and daughters 
just called in a play. She did not mean to, but she knew it was your 
special order and I maybe could bolt for the Cloakroom phone booth for 
just a second.
  She told me that it is all over the news, they are speculating on who 
our good friend Bob Dole's Vice President might be. It is an outsider, 
never been elected to office, but he wrote a book that had to do with 
that subject of values, and it is called the Book of Virtues.
  Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Labor, for 2 weeks head of the 
Republican Party, former drug czar, Director of National Drug Policy, 
and Secretary of Education. He appears at the moment at least, these 
things may come and go, to be the front runner. He has had a few 
dustups with the Republican Party of late, but this is a man that knows 
we are a country on the brink of self-destruction. Billy Graham did not 
have to tell Bill Bennett that.
  He is a son of North Carolina, educated in Massachusetts, and he is 
traveling around the country right now with Bob Dole. This is a no-
nonsense

[[Page H8822]]

guy, quite frankly he always reminds me of a grizzly bear who has just 
kind of rubbed his eyes and messed his hair a little, and you are going 
to get direct from him.
  He has this great friendship with this wonderful black American, this 
lady of African-American descent, Delores Tucker. They have traveled 
together on the rock lyrics and how it is poisoning a whole generation 
of white Americans, Hispanic Americans, African-heritage Americans.

  This will be very interesting. This could be one heck of a debate, 
because although the Bible is on one of the two nightstands on either 
side of our bed, I have to concede the Book of Virtues is on the other 
one.
  I just put him to one test. I said, ``Let me ask you something, 
Bill.'' He told me the book was coming out. I introduced him at a 
Christian Coalition meeting 2 or 3 years ago. I said, ``What's this new 
book you've got coming out? Explain it to me.'' As I am just going up 
to introduce him, I lean back, I say, ``It's got everything in it, 
Aesop's Fables, everything?''
  He says, ``Yeah.''
  I said, ``Here is the acid test. My favorite most impressive morality 
story as a young man, other than all the scriptures I was getting from 
my family, it was a Disney film but it was from an Italian classic, 
Pinocchio. Is Pinocchio in that book?''
  ``Absolutely it is.'' Lampwick, Pleasure Island, smoking cigars, and 
shooting pool. Today it is Michael McCurry talking about toking a few 
joints and doing more than shooting pool, taking your pleasures 
wherever you may, and all of a sudden you are a jackass and suddenly 
you are enslaved to something, enslaved to a sex addiction, enslaved to 
drugs, enslaved to something, but you lose your freedom when you 
indulge yourself hedonistically to the extreme.
  That Pinocchio story is a powerful story because what was it about? A 
little boy with no feelings who developed feelings and it turned him 
into a real boy. And whatever happened to Lampwick, the party guy? We 
do not know. But he said, ``It's in there,'' and sure enough it was. 
Everything is in there.
  What Bill Bennett was trying to respect was the wisdom of the ages, 
that absolute truth exists. There are certain core values. The 10 
Commandments are not new and they are not old. They are just eternal.
  So I think that might be an interesting development, and it will 
certainly keep my classmate Al Gore on his toes, and it may add a 
dimension, if it turns out to be true, to this race.
  The other thing was, get this little play by my daughter Theresa Ann 
Dornan Cobban, who ran one of the best and cheapest presidential 
campaigns in the country, mine. She said, ``Dad, the jury in Little 
Rock, AR, is deadlocked, and the judge said you go back in there and 
you come to a decision.''
  Deadlock is no good for the Clintons because that means they will 
call for a new trial and they will just keep going, and it will just 
take it right into September and October. The prosecution, when they 
wrapped up down there, said the monkey does not get the monkey grinder 
to dance to his tune. The monkey grinder, the owner of the banks, 
spreading all the money illegally into Clinton's gubernatorial races, 
the junior associate in the bank, that would be the monkey, he danced 
to the bank president's tune, and he is the one who has plead guilty, 
turned State's evidence and taken his lumps.
  I do not know what is going to happen with that trial, but we may end 
up with something beyond Nixon. Because when Nixon won in 1972, nobody 
knew that Watergate was going to come back to cause him to fire his 
Doberman pinschers, Haldermann and Erlichman, on April 30, 1973. Nobody 
dreamed it would pull him down on August 9, 1974.
  But this time, if Dole cannot save the country, then we are going to 
have impeachment proceedings in the spring of next year, of 1997, with 
all of this weight of scandalous material building up, building up, 
building up, until, as two Democrats told me on the center of the aisle 
back there, it is kind of dangerous to be a friend of the Clintons 
because you either end up dead or in jail. So we have got a moral 
crisis in this country.

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