[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5969-H5970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              BABY PHOENIX

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share the story of Baby 
Phoenix, first known survivor of a partial-birth abortion. Last week, 
in the A-Z Women's Center in Phoenix, Arizona, a 17-year-old was 
scheduled to abort her baby.
  The abortionist began a partial-birth abortion on what he thought was 
a 23-week-old baby. However, as he continued the procedure, he realized 
that he was actually committing a partial-birth abortion on a 6-pound, 
2-ounce baby girl.
  Instead of continuing this procedure in which the doctor would stick 
scissors into the back of the girl's head and then vacuum her brains 
out, the

[[Page H5970]]

abortionist decided to stop the abortion and deliver the 6-pound, 2-
ounce little girl.
  What if this abortionist had continued the partial-birth abortion? 
Would he have been convicted of killing Baby Phoenix? Absolutely not. 
Under our Nation's abortion law, the doctor could have continued the 
partial-birth abortion and delivered Baby Phoenix dead.
  Our Nation's law protects this infanticide, the right of the doctor 
to kill a baby just because she is not fully outside her mother's body. 
Like Baby Phoenix, my son Dan was only 6 pounds when he was born. I 
remember cradling him in my hands. He was so tiny, but so perfect.
  Those that oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act support the 
right to kill babies like these. We should vote to override the 
President's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and pass it into 
law this year.

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