[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 23, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H258-H259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SUNSET MEMORIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Franks) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I know that another legislative 
day has come to an end and that sunset fast approaches in Washington, 
D.C.
  I stand before this House with what I call a Sunset Memorial. 
Because, you see, Mr. Speaker, before the sun sets today in America, 
almost 4,000 more defenseless unborn children will be killed by 
abortion on demand in the land of the free and the home of the brave. 
That is more than the number of innocent lives lost on September 11th 
in this country, and it happens every single day.
  Mr. Speaker, it has now been 40 years--an entire generation--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 
55 million of its own unborn children. Some of them, Mr. 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, Mr. Speaker. First, 
they were just nameless little babies who had done wrong to no one, and 
yet 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 in this world 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 over and 
over again and our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most 
helpless of all victims, those yet unborn.
  Mr. Speaker, I recently heard Barack Obama speak such poignant words 
that, whether he knows it or not, apply so profoundly to the tragedy of 
abortion on demand in America. Let me quote selected, excerpted 
portions of his comments.
  He said:

       This is our first task--caring for our children. It's our 
     first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything 
     right. That's how, as a society, we will be judged. And by 
     that measure, can we truly say, as a Nation, that we are 
     meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we're doing 
     enough to keep our children--all of them--safe from harm?

  He went on to quote:

       Can we say that we're truly doing enough to give all the 
     children of this country the chance they deserve to live out 
     their lives in happiness and with purpose?

  He said:

       I've been reflecting on this the last few days, and if 
     we're honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We're not 
     doing enough. And we will have to change.

  Oh, Mr. Speaker, how true the President's words were. The President 
also said:

       We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. 
     And to end them, we must change.

  Then the President asked:

       Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the 
     face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we 
     prepared to say that such violence visited on our children 
     year after year after year is somehow the price of our 
     freedom?

  What a powerful question, Mr. Speaker. It is the most relevant 
question we should all be asking in the midst of this genocidal murder 
of thousands of unborn children in America every day.
  The President said:

       Our journey is not complete until all our children are 
     cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.

  He said:

       That is our generation's task--to make these words, these 
     rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of 
     happiness real for every American.

  Mr. Speaker, never have I so deeply agreed with any words ever spoken 
by President Obama as those I have just quoted. And yet this President, 
in the most merciless distortion of logic and reason and humanity 
itself, refuses to apply these majestic words to the helpless unborn 
babies of this Nation. How I wish that somehow Mr. Obama would just 
open his heart and his ears to his own words, and ask himself in the 
core of his soul, why his words, that should apply to all children, 
cannot include the most helpless of all children.
  Only a few days ago, no more than 200 yards from this well, Barack 
Obama put his hand down on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln was 
sworn in on when he took his Presidential oath.

                              {time}  1440

  Mr. Speaker, we should remember that we honor Abraham Lincoln most 
because he found the courage as President of the United States in the 
days of slavery, and the humanity within himself, to recognize the 
image of God

[[Page H259]]

stamped on the soul of slaves that the Supreme Court said were not 
human and that the tide of public opinion didn't recognize as 
protectable under the law. Could it still be, could it still be, Mr. 
Speaker, that President Barack Obama might consider that perspective, 
as well as his own legacy, and even eternity itself, Mr. Speaker, and 
recognize that in his day under his Presidency that these little unborn 
children look so desperately to him now for help?
  Could it be that the President might finally remember that on the 
pages of the Bible on which he laid his hand were the words written in 
red:

       Inasmuch as you have done unto the least of these My 
     brethren, you have done it unto Me.

  Mr. Speaker, whether he does or not, it is certainly 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 happiness, and not its 
     destruction, is the chief and only object of good government.

  The phrase in the 14th Amendment encapsulates 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 all Americans and their 
constitutional rights is why we are all here. The bedrock foundation of 
this Republic is that clarion declaration of that self-evident truth 
that all human beings are created equal and endowed by their Creator 
with unalienable rights, the 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 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 little American babies who died today without the 
protection we should have given them.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this sunset memorial in the hopes 
that perhaps someone new who heard it tonight will finally embrace the 
very inconvenient truth that abortion really does kill little babies 
and that it hurts mothers in ways that we can never imagine, and that 
it is time we stood up together again and looked to our Declaration of 
Independence and remember that we are the same America that rejected 
human slavery and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust, and 
we are still the courageous and compassionate Nation that can find a 
better way for mothers and their unborn babies than abortion on demand.
  It is still not too late for us to make a better world and for 
America to be the one that leads the rest of the planet, just as we did 
in the days of slavery, from this tragic genocide of murdering nearly 
4,000 of our own children every day.
  So, now, Mr. Speaker, as we consider the plight of the unborn after 
40 years under Roe v. Wade, maybe we can remind ourselves that our own 
days in this sunshine of life are all numbered, and that all too soon, 
each one of us will also 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, may that be the day when we finally 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.
  Mr. Speaker, it is now 40 years 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.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________