[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 27, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1138-H1139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SUNSET MEMORIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Madam Speaker, I stand once again before this 
body with yet another Sunset Memorial. It is February 27, 2008, in the 
land of the free and the home of the brave, and before the sun sets 
today in America, almost 4,000 more defenseless unborn children will 
have been killed by abortion on demand, just today. That is more than 
the number of innocent American lives lost on September 11, only it 
happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,819 days since the travesty called Roe v. 
Wade was handed down. Since then, the very foundation of this Nation 
has been stained by the blood of almost 50 million of its own children.
  Some of them cried and screamed as they died, but because it was 
amniotic fluid passing over their vocal cords instead of air, we 
couldn't hear them. All of them had at least four things in common: 
They were each just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone. 
Each one of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each of their 
mothers, whether she realizes it immediately or not, will never be the 
same. And all the gifts these children might have brought to humanity 
are now lost forever.
  Yet even in the full glare of such tragedy, this generation clings to 
a blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself and our own 
silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless of all 
victims to date, those yet unborn.
  Madam Speaker, perhaps it's important for those of us in this Chamber 
to remind ourselves again of why we are really all here. Thomas 
Jefferson said, ``The care of human life and its happiness and not its 
destruction is the chief and only object of good government.''
  The 14th amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It says, ``No 
state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due 
process of

[[Page H1139]]

law.'' Protecting the lives of our innocent citizens and their 
constitutional rights is why we are all here.
  The bedrock foundation of this Republic is that clarion declaration 
of the self-evident truth that all human beings are created equal and 
endowed by their creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness. Every conflict and battle our Nation has 
ever faced can be traced to our commitment to this core self-evident 
truth. It has made us the beacon of hope for the entire world. It is 
who we are.
  Yet, Madam Speaker, another day has passed, and we in this body have 
failed again to honor that foundational commitment. We failed our sworn 
oath and our God-given responsibility as we broke faith with nearly 
4,000 more innocent American babies who died today without the 
protection we should have given them.
  But perhaps tonight, Madam Speaker, maybe someone new who hears this 
sunset memorial will finally realize that abortion really does kill 
little babies, that it hurts mothers in ways that can never be 
expressed, and that 12,819 days spent killing nearly 50 million unborn 
children in America is enough, and that the America that rejected human 
slavery and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust is still 
courageous and compassionate enough to find a better way for mothers 
and their unborn children than abortion on demand.
  So tonight, Madam Speaker, may we each remind ourselves that our own 
days in this sunshine of life are numbered and that all too soon each 
of us will walk from these Chambers for the very last time. And if it 
should be that this Congress is allowed to convene on yet another day 
to come, may that be the day when we finally hear the cries of the 
innocent unborn. May that be the day when we find the humanity, the 
courage, and the will to embrace together our human and our 
constitutional duty to protect the least of these, our tiny American 
brothers and sisters, from this murderous scourge upon our Nation 
called abortion on demand.
  It is February 27, 2008, 12,819 days since Roe v. Wade first stained 
the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own children. This, 
in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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