[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 11 (Thursday, January 22, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H520-H521]
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 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Franks) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, another legislative day has come 
to an end, and sunset approaches fast in Washington, DC. And as I have 
so many years, I stand before you in 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 11 in this country by a multitude of thousands. And it 
happens every day.
  It has now been 42 years 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 56 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 little babies who had never done anything wrong to 
anyone. Each one of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each one 
of their mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never quite be 
the same. All the gifts that these children might have brought for 
humanity and to humanity are now lost forever.

  Yet, Mr. Speaker, even in the glare of such tragedy, this generation 
still clings to this blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats 
itself over and over again, and our silent genocide mercilessly 
annihilates the most helpless of all victims--those yet unborn.
  We should remember the quotes of President Abraham Lincoln when he 
said:

       Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not themselves, 
     and under a just God, cannot long retain it.

  Mr. Lincoln called upon all of us to remember America's Founding 
Fathers when he said:

       Their enlightened belief was that nothing stamped with the 
     divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be 
     trodden on or degraded and imbruted by its fellows.

  He reminded those he called posterity--and that is us, Mr. Speaker:

       When in the distant future some man, some factions, some 
     interests should set up a doctrine that some were not 
     entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that 
     their posterity--again, Mr. Speaker, that is us--might look 
     up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage 
     to renew the battle which their fathers began.

  Mr. Speaker, when authorities entered the clinic of Dr. Kermit 
Gosnell, they found a torture chamber for little babies that defies 
description within the constraints of the English language.
  According to the grand jury report:

       Dr. Kermit Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted 
     babies: he killed them. Now, he didn't call it that. He 
     called it ``ensuring fetal demise.'' And the way he ensured 
     fetal demise was by sticking scissors in the back of the 
     baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called it 
     snipping. Over the years there were hundreds of snippings.

  Mr. Speaker, Ashley Baldwin, one of Dr. Gosnell's employees, said she 
saw babies breathing, and she described one as 2 feet long that no 
longer had eyes or a mouth, but, in her words, was making like this 
screeching noise. She said: ``It sounded like a little alien.''
  For God's sake, Mr. Speaker, is this who we really are?
  Kermit Gosnell now rightfully sits in prison for killing a mother and 
murdering innocent, pain-capable children like the one I just 
described. Yet if he had killed them only 5 minutes earlier and before 
they had passed through the birth canal, it would have all been 
perfectly legal in many of the United States of America, including here 
in the District of Columbia.
  If there is one thing we must not miss about this unspeakably evil 
episode it is that Kermit Gosnell is not an anomaly. He is just the 
visible face of this lucrative enterprise of murdering pain-capable 
unborn children in America. Mr. Speaker, more than 18,000 very late-
term abortions are occurring in America every year, placing the mothers 
at exponentially greater risk and subjecting their pain-capable unborn 
babies to torture and death without anesthesia. It is the worst 
atrocity in America today, and this in the land of the free and the 
home of the brave.
  Throughout history there has often been great intensity surrounding 
the debates of protecting the innocent lives of those who, through no 
fault of their own, find themselves obscured in the shadows of 
humanity. It encourages me greatly that in nearly all of those cases 
the collective conscience was finally moved in favor of the victims.
  The same thing is beginning to happen in this debate related to 
innocent, unborn children, Mr. Speaker, especially those that are pain 
capable. We are beginning to ask ourselves the real question: Does 
abortion take the life of a child? We are especially asking the 
question recently: Does very late-term abortion torture and take the 
life of a pain-capable baby? And we are finally beginning to realize as 
human beings that it does.
  Ultrasound technology now demonstrates to all reasonable observers 
both the humanity of the victim and the inhumanity of what is being 
done to them. And we are beginning to realize as Americans that taking 
brutally the lives of the innocent unborn does not liberate anyone and 
that 56 million children, Mr. Speaker, is enough.
  Ironically I have 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 excerpted portions of his 
comments. He said:

       This is our first task--caring for our children. It is our 
     first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything 
     right. That is how, as a society, we will be judged.

  He went on to say:

       And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we 
     are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we are 
     doing enough to keep our children--all of them--safe from 
     harm? Can we say that we are truly doing enough to give all 
     the children of this country the chance they deserve to live 
     out their lives with happiness and purpose?

  The President went on to say:

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

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

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

  And then the President asked:

       Are we really prepared to say that we are 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 freedom?

  Mr. Speaker, is this not the most relevant of questions we should all 
be asking in the midst of this genocidal murder of thousands of unborn 
babies in America every day?

                              {time}  1500

  The President has said: ``Our journey is not complete until all our 
children'' . . . are ``cared for and cherished and always safe from 
harm.''
  Finally, 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 Barack 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 helpless 
unborn babies.

[[Page H521]]

  Oh, how I wish somehow that Mr. Obama and all of us could open our 
hearts and our ears to his words and ask ourselves in the core of our 
own soul why his words that should apply to all children cannot apply 
to the most helpless of all children.
  Mr. Speaker, we honor Abraham Lincoln most because he found the 
courage as President of the United States in the days of slavery, and 
he found the humanity within himself to recognize the image of God 
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 that President Barack Obama might consider that 
perspective as well as his own legacy, and even eternity itself, and 
recognize that those 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 hands were the words written in 
red: ``Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My 
brethren, you have done it unto Me''?
  Whether he does or not, it is 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 the due process of law.

  The 14th Amendment tells us that we should have equal protection of 
the laws for all. 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 the self-evident truth that all human beings are created equal and 
endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, the rights of life 
and 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 truly who we are.
  Yet today another day has passed. As so many sunset memorials that I 
have given, 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, unborn babies who died today without the 
protection we should have given them.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this sunset memorial in the hope 
that perhaps someone new who heard it 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 it is time we stood up 
together again and looked up to the Declaration of Independence, and 
that we 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 children 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 thousands, the hundreds of 
thousands out on The Mall marching to protect these little babies, as 
we consider the plight of the unborn for 42 years under Roe v. Wade, 
maybe we can each remind ourselves that our own days in this sunshine 
of life are all numbered and that we, too, each one, shall walk from 
these Chambers one day for the very last time.
  If it should be that Congress is allowed to convene on yet another 
day, may that be the day when we finally hear the cries, when we 
finally hear the cries of innocent, unborn children. May that be the 
day when we find the humanity and the 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.
  Mr. Speaker, it is now 42 years to the day 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.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________