[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 49 (Monday, March 31, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H1794]
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. Mr. Speaker, I stand, once again, before this 
body with yet another Sunset Memorial. It is March 31, 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 were 
killed by abortion on demand. That's just today, Mr. Speaker. That is 
more than the number of innocent American lives that were lost on 
September 11 times 15,000, the total number that were lost on September 
11.
  It has now been exactly 12,852 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 our own children. 
Some of them, Mr. Speaker, died and cried and screamed as they died. 
But because it was amniotic fluid passing over the vocal cords rather 
than 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 or not, will never be the same. And all of the gifts 
that these children might have brought to humanity are lost forever.
  Yet, even in the full glare of such tragedy, this generation clings 
to 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.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps it's important for those 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 phrase in the 14th amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. 
It says: ``No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law.''
  Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of our innocent citizens and their 
constitutional rights is why we are all here. It is our sworn oath.
  The bedrock foundation of this Republic is that clarion declaration 
of the self-evident truth that all human beings are created equal and 
they are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
  Every conflict 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. And yet, Mr. Speaker, 
another day has passed. And we in this body have failed again to honor 
that foundational commitment. We failed our sworn oath, and we failed 
our God-given responsibility as we broke faith with the nearly 4,000 
more innocent American babies who died today without the protection 
that we should have given them. And it seems so sad, Mr. Speaker, to me 
that this Sunset Memorial may be the only remembrance that these 
children who died today will ever have in this Chamber.
  And so just as small a gesture as it might be, I would ask those who 
are inclined for just a moment of silence at this time for these 
little, lost Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, let me conclude in the hope that perhaps someone new who 
hears this Sunset Memorial tonight will finally realize that abortion 
really does kill little babies, that it hurts mothers in ways that we 
can never express and that 12,852 days spent killing nearly 15 million 
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 babies than abortion on demand.
  So tonight, Mr. Speaker, may we each remind ourselves that our own 
days in this sunshine of life are also numbered and that all too soon, 
each of us will walk through 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 finally 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.
  Mr. Speaker, it is March 31, 2008, 12,852 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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