[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 13 (Thursday, January 22, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S736-S737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ROE V. WADE
Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, today is a sad day. We had a wonderful
inauguration a couple of days ago, phenomenal crowd, a great
celebration, and a peaceful transfer of power took place. It was
amazing. I was there on the front steps of the Capitol watching it,
participating in it, excited about the first African-American President
of the United States; an amazing thing to take place within one
generation of Martin Luther King's marches and what he did in this
country. My State has been a big part of all of those things and what
has taken place. Today is a sad day, though. Today, 36 years ago, the
Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade banned all impediments to having
an abortion in the United States and said abortion is a constitutional
right that the individual carries in the United States and that it
cannot be infringed upon, cannot be limited. It did later limit some of
that and gave a few places where the State could act to limit--most
recently partial-birth abortions, where the Supreme Court has recently
ruled that the State can limit partial-birth abortions. And there were
a few minor areas in the Roe decision, but overall it made a
constitutional right to abortion. That was 36 years ago.
The reason I say it is a sad day is there have been roughly--and
nobody knows for sure--40 million children who are not here today
because of that decision. It ratcheted up, escalated up substantially
the number of abortions in the United States that took place after
that. It moved forward to the point that most estimates are that one in
four pregnancies in the United States will end in an abortion and a
child dying. And it even gets worse from that point. When you look at
children with special needs, such as Down syndrome children, the number
is somewhere between 80 to 90 percent do not make it here, as I have
stated on this floor previously, as they are aborted and they are
killed because of their genetic type. They get a test, the
amniocentesis test, which says they have an extra chromosome, and
generally because of that extra chromosome they are aborted and they
are killed, even though the fact is, if they would get here on the
ground, life and the prospects for a Down syndrome child now have never
been better. Life expectancy, quality of life issues, if that is your
measure, have never been better than they are now. Plus, the families
who have a Down syndrome child look at those children as the
centerpiece of the family, an amazing person. Yet somewhere between 80
to 90 percent of these amazing people never make it here, and that is
because of what happened 36 years ago this day in the Supreme Court of
the United States.
That is why there will be hundreds of thousands, primarily young
people, marching today in Washington, DC. They will get no mention.
There will be very little press, if any, outside of some of the
religious press that will be there. But outside of that, they will get
virtually no coverage. There will be hundreds of thousands of young
people here marching and asking for a change and something different,
something that I hope President Barack Obama would embrace. He was
empowered on the legs of young people and young enthusiastic minds
looking for change, looking for something different. That same young
generation is the most pro-life demographic in our country today. That
age group that is below the age of 25 is the most pro life. They are
looking for something different. They are looking for a sanctity of
life. They are looking for us to protect all innocent human life. They
are looking for us to work to make all human life better, whether that
is a child in the womb or a child in Darfur. Whether it is somebody in
prison or somebody in poverty, they want that person's life to be
better.
That is a beautiful pro-life statement. It is one that we need to see
mirrored. It is one we need to see acted upon. It is one we need to see
happen, rather than the repealing of things such as Mexico City
language which says we can now use taxpayer dollars to fund groups
overseas that work and support and fund abortion. Yet apparently that
is what the Obama administration is going to do, it is going to repeal
Mexico City language and say that taxpayer dollars can now be used for
these purposes that most Americans disagree with. That is not the
change people are looking for. Those are chains to the past. Those are
things that bind us to a culture that doesn't affirm life, that doesn't
see it as sacred and beautiful in all its places and dignity in every
human life no matter who it is. Those are ones that say quality of life
is your measure, as to whether you should be the recipient of such a
gift of life.
It is a sad day. It is a tough day. I hope it is a day that doesn't
go on as far as our having many future annual recognitions of the Roe
v. Wade decision but, rather that in the future we will be a life-
affirming place and that we will say, in a dignified culture every life
at every place in every way is beautiful and it is unique and it is
amazing and it is something that should be celebrated and it should not
be killed. When we move to that, that will be real change. That is the
sort of change that people can look at and say, that is what I want my
country to be like.
You know, the sadness doesn't stop with the death of the children. We
are now seeing more and more studies coming out about the impact on
people who have abortions. In August this past year, 100 scientists,
medical and mental health professionals, released a joint statement
that abortion does indeed hurt women. The Supreme Court of the United
States concluded some women do regret their abortions and can suffer
severe depression and loss of
[[Page S737]]
self-esteem. These professionals have officially confirmed these facts.
They say the number of women adversely affected by abortions cannot be
overlooked by the medical community.
In looking at this in our own family situation, every one of our
children is incredibly precious. If I think of one of them not being
there, it is one of those stunning sort of thoughts of despair, and yet
to think of the 40 million who aren't here and of the stunning amount
of despair there must be in a number of people's lives and hearts as
they think, I made that decision fast, or I did that under a lot of
pressure, or I didn't think I had another choice. But other choices did
exist. People want to adopt, and people want to adopt Down syndrome
children. As Ted Kennedy and I recognized, in my bill we got passed
last year on prenatally and postnatally diagnosed diseases, which
established a list of people who wanted to adopt Down syndrome children
or children with special needs--some people look at a child in that
situation and say, I can't handle that, and I understand. But there are
people who believe they can handle it and they want to take a child and
raise it.
So I hope as we look forward, we will work together and say, this is
something that shouldn't be happening the way it is in the United
States and we want to make it different. I hope we will recognize these
young people who are marching out here now, who are hoping for change,
and understand the change they want is quite valuable, it is beautiful,
it is life affirming, and that ultimately it is going to happen.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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