[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 28, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S4369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire:
  S. 907. A bill to protect the right to life of each born and preborn 
human person in existence at fertilization; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.


                       right to life act of 1999

  Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce 
the Right to Life Act of 1999.
  Our Nation's founding document, the Declaration of Independence, 
declared for all the world that we hold it to be self-evident that the 
right to life comes from God and that it is unalienable. Life itself, 
the Declaration held, is the fundamental right without which the rights 
to liberty and the pursuit of happiness have to meaning. As the author 
of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, later wrote, ``The care of human 
life and not its destruction . . . is the first and only object of good 
government.''
  Almost 200 years after the Declaration of Independence, however, in 
1973, the United States Supreme Court violated its most sacred 
principle. In Roe versus Wade, the Supreme Court held that the entire 
class of unborn children--from fertilization to birth--have no right to 
life and may be destroyed at will. In subsequent cases, the Court has 
zealously guarded the right to abortion that it created. The Court has 
repeatedly rejected all meaningful attempts by the States to protect 
the unalienable right to life of unborn children.
  Those of us who proudly count ourselves to be members of the right-
to-life movement must not lose sight of our ultimate goal. Our 
objective is to keep the Declaration's promise by reversing Roe versus 
Wade and restoring to unborn children their God-given right to life. In 
order to keep that hope alive in the Senate, I am introducing today the 
``Right to Life Act of 1999.''
  My bill first sets forth several findings of Congress regarding the 
fundamental right to life and the tragic constitutional errors of Roe 
versus Wade. Based on these findings and in the exercise of the powers 
of the Congress under Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, and 
Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, my bill 
establishes that ``the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is 
vested in each human being at fertilization.''
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of my bill, the 
``Right to Life Act of 1999,'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 907

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Right to Life Act of 1999''.
       Sec. 2. The Congress finds that--
       (1) we, as a Nation, have declared that the unalienable 
     right to life endowed by Our Creator is guaranteed by our 
     Constitution for each human person:
       (2) the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 at 
     159), stated: ``We need not resolve the difficult question of 
     when life begins . . . the judiciary at this point in the 
     development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to 
     speculate as to the answer . . .'';
       (3) the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 at 156-
     157), stated: ``If this suggestion of personhood is 
     established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for 
     the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by 
     the [Fourteenth] Amendment . . .'';
       (4) the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade stated that the 
     privacy right is not absolute, and stated (410 U.S. 113, at 
     159) that: ``The pregnant woman cannot be isolated in her 
     privacy. She carries an embryo and, later, a fetus. . . . The 
     woman's privacy is no longer sole and any right of privacy 
     she possesses must be measured accordingly.'';
       (5) a human father and mother beget a human offspring when 
     the father's sperm fertilizes the mother's ovum, and the life 
     of each preborn human person begins at fertilization;
       (6) there is no justification for any Federal, State, or 
     private action intentionally to kill an innocent born or 
     preborn human person, and that Federal, State, and private 
     action must assure equal care and protection for the right to 
     life of both a pregnant mother and her preborn child in 
     existence at fertilization;
       (7) Americans and our society suffer from the evils of 
     killing even one innocent born or preborn human person, and 
     each day suffer the torture and slaughter of an estimated 
     4,000 preborn persons;
       (8) the intentional killing of preborn human persons occurs 
     in Federal enclaves, in interstate commerce activities, and 
     in the States, estimated at 1,500,000 per year and 33,000,000 
     since 1973; and
       (9) the violence of intentionally killing a preborn human 
     person has provoked more violence, carnage, and conflict 
     reaching into homes, schools, churches, workplaces and lives 
     of Americans.

     SEC. 3. RIGHT TO LIFE.

       Upon the basis of these findings and in the exercise of 
     duty, authority, and powers of the Congress, including its 
     power under Article I, Section 8, to make necessary and 
     proper laws, and including its power under section 5 of the 
     14th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United 
     States, the Congress hereby declares that the right to life 
     guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being 
     at fertilization.

     SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF STATE.

       For the purpose of this Act, the term ``State'' used in the 
     14th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United 
     States and other applicable provisions of the Constitution 
     includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
     Rico, and each other territory or possession of the United 
     States.
                                 ______