[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S173-S174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             March For Life

  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, one of the best presentations I have 
heard in a long time was just a couple of hours ago by James Lankford. 
What he was talking about, I have never heard a presentation more 
heartfelt

[[Page S174]]

and compassionate than he did on the unborn, and I couldn't touch that. 
But there are a couple of things I wanted to add that perhaps were not 
on his--he didn't have time to get around to.
  It is really important that we recognize celebrating this March for 
Life that is taking place. It is something that has happened each year 
for a long time now. I have always enjoyed being a part of it. We have 
large groups of people coming up from Oklahoma.
  However, it is virtual this year as everything else is. It is more 
important than ever under this new administration and its radical 
abortion practices and the personnel that have been suggested to be 
part of the administration. So it is going to be maybe a greater fight 
than it has been in the past.
  In light of that, I am introducing a bill I have introduced before, 
but we have never been able to get it passed. It is called Protecting 
Individuals with Down Syndrome Act, which will prohibit abortions being 
sought because the unborn baby has Down syndrome.
  All abortion is tragic, but this population has been specifically 
targeted. In the United States--it just turned out this way, and there 
is no law that influences it--in the United States, approximately 67 
percent of the unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. 
All lives have inherent worth regardless of their chromosome count. I 
think we all understand that.
  But my fight does not stop there. I am also joining my colleagues in 
introducing several pro-life bills as we prepare for March for Life, 
including Senator Sasse's. He has a bill that is the Born-Alive 
Abortion Survivors Protection Act. His bill ensures that a baby who 
survives an abortion will receive the same treatment as any child 
naturally born at the same age.
  People don't realize this, but babies who have been in an attempted 
abortion and they survive the abortion, they don't get the medical 
treatment that they normally would get, which this bill directly 
addresses. This has been going on for a long time. I have a feeling 
that we have an opportunity. The numbers are changing in our direction 
in terms of the unborn and have been for some time.
  Now, my wife Kay and I have been married 60 years. We have 20 kids 
and grandkids, so I know something about babies. I know something about 
babies who are born. And I looked up and I saw--because of the great 
presentation that Senator Lankford gave, I was looking for some 
material I had used in the past.
  It was 28 years ago that I came down here to tell the story about Ana 
Rosa Rodriguez. This is what I said. I was in the House at that time. 
This was in the House Record, and this is what I said at that time. I 
said:

       Mr. Chairman, there is a big misconception regarding 
     abortion and the issue of women and their right to protect 
     their bodies. It is not that right that I object to, but the 
     right that is given them to kill an unborn fetus--an unborn 
     [baby].
       I want to share with you a story that my colleague, Chris 
     Smith told some time ago on this very floor. Ana Rosa 
     Rodriguez is an abortion survivor. At birth she was a healthy 
     3 pound baby girl except for her injury--she was missing an 
     arm.
       Ana survived a botched abortion. Her mother attempted to 
     get an abortion in her 32nd week of pregnancy when she was 
     perfectly healthy--8 weeks past what New York State law 
     legally allows. In the unsuccessful abortion attempt the 
     baby's right arm was ripped off [from her body], however they 
     failed to kill Ana Rosa. She lived.

  And I got to know her after that.

       Pro-life supporters agreed that nightmare situations like 
     the Rodriguez case are probably not [all that] common, but 
     abortion related deaths and serious injuries occur more 
     [often] than most people are aware.
       It is amazing that we can pay so much attention to issues 
     such as human rights abroad and can allow the violent 
     destruction of over 26 million children here at home. We are 
     fortunate that Ana was not one of those children--she 
     survived.

  That was in 1992. I was in the House at that time. But today we still 
don't have explicit Federal protections for babies who survive the 
brutal abortion process.
  Now, as I said, this issue is not about abortion but about caring for 
a baby outside the womb. These kids are--they failed an abortion, so 
they are alive. In most cases, they are in a hospital setting--in many 
cases, anyway--and yet they don't get the same care. They don't look at 
them as someone you can save. You don't want to use lifesaving talents 
on these babies.
  The need for these protections become even clearer as we see States 
like New York and Illinois that allow abortion for virtually any reason 
up to the point of birth and support infanticide by removing 
protectants for infants born alive after a failed abortion.
  Just a few years after that speech I gave in 1997, I was on the floor 
with my good friend former Senator Rick Santorum to try to pass a 
partial-birth abortion ban and end the horrific practice of late-term 
abortions. Fortunately, we won the battle against partial-birth 
abortions and finally ended that practice in 2003. That ban was upheld 
by the Supreme Court in 2007.
  But we have yet to pass legislation banning late-term abortions. Only 
seven countries allow abortion after 20 weeks, including the United 
States and North Korea. Now, that is horrific. The United States is 
supposed to be an example in regards to global human rights. Yet we are 
on par with North Korea when it comes to protecting the unborn.
  Senator Graham's Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would help 
roll back this horrific practice by prohibiting abortions after 20 
weeks post-fertilization. That is when we know that babies can feel. It 
is not even debatable; they can feel pain at that time.
  It is another commonsense bill that should not divide us along party 
lines. A baby is a baby whether in or outside of the womb, and each 
baby deserves a chance to live as an individual created in the image of 
God.
  There is still much more we need to do to end the abortion-on-demand 
culture. Under the last administration, we protected the Hyde 
amendment, reinstated and expanded the Mexico City policy, and stripped 
abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from using title X funding 
for abortions. Unfortunately, President Biden is trying to undo all 
those accomplishments that we made in the last administration.
  The need to stand up for our babies is as important today as it has 
ever been--certainly in 1992 and 1997 when I quoted from talks I made 
back at that time. We will overcome evil with good by upholding and 
affirming the dignity and inherent worth of every human being. We will 
just keep fighting, and we are going to win this one.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.