[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ARE WE A CIVILIZED SOCIETY?

  (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, prohibiting barbaric partial-
birth abortions is a matter of whether we are a civilized society, not 
whether we are pro-life or pro-choice. It is a sad commentary on the 
slippery slope of loss of respect for the dignity of human life in our 
society that we in Congress once more have to debate whether it is OK 
to kill babies this way.
  Let us understand exactly what is involved in this procedure. Labor 
in the mother is induced, the baby is turned and then partially 
delivered, feet first, with its head kept inside the womb. While still 
living, scissors or a trocar are inserted in the back of the baby's 
head, its brain is then suctioned out and skull collapsed before the 
baby is removed from the womb.
  If Congress were voting about a method of execution, stabbing someone 
in the back of their head and sucking out their brains I am sure would 
not get a single vote in the Congress. If this would be wrong for the 
most heinous criminals, how can it be right for innocent babies?

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