[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 10, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H5179-H5180]
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, as many times before, I stand 
before this House with yet another Sunset Memorial.
  Madam Speaker, it is now June 10, 2008, in the land of the free and 
the home of the brave, but before the sun set today in America, almost 
4,000 more children, defenseless unborn, were killed by abortion on 
demand. And that is just today, Madam Speaker. That is more than the 
number of innocent lives that this Nation lost on September 11, only it 
happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,923 days since the tragedy called Roe v. 
Wade was first 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,

[[Page H5180]]

Madam Speaker, cried and screamed as they died, but because it was 
amniotic fluid going over the vocal cords instead of air, we couldn't 
hear them.
  All of them had at least four things in common, Madam Speaker. First, 
they were each just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone; 
and each one of them died a nameless and lonely death; and each one of 
their mothers, whether she realized it immediately or not, will never 
quite be the same; and all the gifts that these children might have 
brought to humanity are now lost forever.
  And yet even in the glare of such tragedy, this generation still 
clings to a blind, invisible ignorance, while history repeats itself 
and our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless 
of all victims, those yet unborn.
  Madam Speaker, perhaps it is time for those of us in this Chamber to 
remind ourselves 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 objective 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.''
  Madam Speaker, 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 inalienable rights of life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness. Every conflict and battle our Nation has ever 
faced can be traced to our core commitment to this self-evident truth. 
It has made us the beacon of hope for the entire world, Madam Speaker. 
It is truly who we are.
  And yet today another day has passed, and we in this body have failed 
again to honor that commitment. We have 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.
  Madam Speaker, let me conclude in the hope that perhaps someone new 
who hears this Sunset Memorial will finally tonight embrace the truth 
that abortion really does kill little babies, that it hurts mothers in 
ways that we can never express, and that 12,923 days spent killing 
nearly 50 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 unborn babies than abortion on demand.
  So tonight, Madam Speaker, may we each remind ourselves that our own 
days in this Chamber and in this sunshine of life are also numbered, 
and all too soon each one of us will walk from these doors for the very 
last time. And if it should be that 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 in our Nation. 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 these, the least of our 
tiny little brothers and sisters in America from this murderous scourge 
upon our Nation called abortion on demand.
  Madam Speaker, it is June 10, 2008, 12,923 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.

                          ____________________