[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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