[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 101 (Wednesday, June 18, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H5548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H5548]]
                            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 
House with yet another Sunset Memorial.
  It is June 18, 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, Madam Speaker. That's more than the number of innocent 
lives lost on September 11 in this country, only it happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,931 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, Madam Speaker, cried and screamed as they died, 
but because it was amniotic fluid passing over the vocal cords 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 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 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 
most helpless of all victims, those yet unborn.
  Madam Speaker, perhaps it's 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 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.'' 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 the 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. Madam 
Speaker, it is who we are.
  And yet today another day has passed, and we in this body have failed 
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. And it seems so sad to me, Madam 
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 a small gesture, I would ask those in the Chamber who are 
inclined to join me for a moment of silent memorial to these lost 
little Americans.
  So Madam 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 12,931 days spent 
killing nearly 50 million unborn children in America is enough; and 
that it is time that we stood up together again, and remembered that we 
are the same America that rejected human slavery and 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.
  Madam 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 all too soon each one 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 innocent unborn children. 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 
American brothers and sisters from this murderous scourge upon our 
Nation called abortion on demand.
  It is June 18, 2008, 12,931 days since Roe versus 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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