[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 100 (Tuesday, June 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H5460-H5461]
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, as so many times before, I stand 
once again before this body with yet another Sunset Memorial.
  It is June 17, 2008, in the land of the free and the home of the 
brave, and before the sun set today in America, almost 4,000 more 
defenseless unborn children were killed by abortion on demand. And 
that's just today, Mr. Speaker. That's more than the number that were 
killed on September 11 in this country, only it happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,930 days since the tragedy called Roe v. 
Wade was first handed down. Since then, Mr. Speaker, 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 the vocal chords 
instead of air, we couldn't hear them.
  All of them had at least four things in common: First, they were each 
just little babies who had done nothing wrong in this world to anyone. 
And each one of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each one of 
their mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never be quite the 
same. And all of the gifts that these children might have brought to 
humanity are now lost forever. Yet even in the glare of such tragedy, 
this generation still clings to a blind, invincible ignorance while 
history repeats itself and our own silent genocide mercilessly 
annihilates the host helpless of all victims yet to date, those yet 
unborn.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps it's time for those of us in this Chamber to 
remind ourselves of why we're 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.
  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 certain 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. Mr. Speaker, it is who we are. And yet today another day has 
passed, and we in this body have failed yet again to honor that 
foundational 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.

[[Page H5461]]

  And it seems so sad to me, Mr. Speaker, that this Sunset Memorial may 
be the only acknowledgement or remembrance these children who died 
today will ever have in this Chamber. So as the smallest gesture, I 
would ask for those in the Chamber who are inclined to join me for a 
moment of silent memorial to these lost little Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this Sunset Memorial in the hope that 
perhaps someone new who heard it tonight will finally embrace the truth 
that abortion really does kill little babies, that it hurts mothers in 
ways that we can never express, and that 12,930 days spent killing 
nearly 50 million unborn children in America is enough. And that it is 
time that we stood up together again and remember that we are the same 
America that rejected human slavery and that marched into Europe to 
arrest the Nazi Holocaust. And we are still courageous and 
compassionate enough to find a better way for mothers and their unborn 
babies than abortion on demand.
  Mr. Speaker, as we consider the plight of unborn America tonight, may 
we each remind ourselves that our own days in this sunshine of life are 
also numbered, and that we will all too soon, each one of us, 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 unborn children in this 
Nation. May that be the day that 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, from 
this murderous scourge upon our Nation called abortion on demand.
  It is June 17, 2008, 12,930 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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