[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 27 (Thursday, February 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNITION OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY'S BIRTHDAY

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                          HON. JO ANN EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 13, 2003

  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, when we hear the term ``women's rights'' 
we must think of the early suffragette Susan B. Anthony who fought to 
establish equality for women. But few people equate this woman with the 
plight of the unborn.
  I'd like to take the opportunity, on this 183rd year following her 
birth, to commemorate the woman who fought to bring equality to women, 
African Americans, and unborn children.
  Long before pro-choice advocates took the term ``women's rights'' for 
their own cause, Susan B. Anthony and the early suffragists were 
advocating ``women's rights.'' Among the women's rights demanded by the 
suffragists was the right of a mother to give birth to her child. In 
fact, Anthony has been quoted as stating that abortion destroys a 
woman's life, wronging her greatly. For Anthony, women's rights and the 
rights of unborn children are partners in the same cause.
  Let us recognize in the voice of Susan B. Anthony the truth that 
abortion is a great wrong. Mothers who choose to have an abortion both 
extinguish the light of their unborn child and inflict almost certain 
emotional damage upon themselves. There is no reason for this needless 
pain and suffering to go on.

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