[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S186-S187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             MARCH FOR LIFE

  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, our Nation was founded on an incredibly 
powerful and truly audacious idea. The idea was that every single human 
being was created equal, with rights that come from your Creator, from 
God--not from the government, not from the laws, not even from the 
Constitution or your leaders. You are born with those rights. Inherent 
in that is our powerful national commitment that I think remains to 
this day, the belief that everyone should have freedom and that 
everyone--because freedom comes with those rights--and that everyone be 
treated fairly.
  For 244 years, our story has been that of a nation on a continuous 
and a steady march to live up to those ideals. Tomorrow, thousands will 
come to Washington once again for a different march but one that I 
believe is tied directly to this Nation's ongoing quest to fulfill the 
promise of its founding.
  Almost half a century ago, the Supreme Court of the United States 
decided that within our Constitution, there was the implicit right to 
end the life of an unborn child. Since then, every single day in this 
country, unborn human beings have had their life ended before they even 
drew their first breath. They are, in essence, denied the freedom to 
live, not because they did anything wrong; they are denied this most 
basic of rights unfairly because of circumstances they have nothing to 
do with and do not control.
  That this occurs here is shameful enough, and I believe that is how 
history will regard it; that we use taxpayer money to promote it and 
export it abroad is outrageous.
  Before we even passed a bill to deal with the pandemic or to bring 
back good jobs to the United States or any of the other major issues 
confronting our country, in one of his first acts as President, 
President Biden decided to prioritize tearing up the so-called Mexico 
City policy--a policy that rightfully bans our taxpayer dollars from 
being sent to organizations that use them to perform or promote 
abortions overseas.
  Abortion is a very difficult and uncomfortable topic. No one can 
pretend that if some 15-year-old girl is pregnant and afraid--afraid of 
her parents, afraid of what others might think, afraid for her future--
that she faces an easy choice. It is not.
  It doesn't feel fair, it doesn't feel like freedom to have laws that 
tell people what they can or cannot do with their body, but in this 
case, the challenge we have is that it is a case that puts the 
fundamental rights of two people into direct conflict--the right, as 
most definitely exists, of a mother to choose what to do with her body 
versus the right of an unborn child to live. It

[[Page S187]]

forces us to decide which one of these two rights wins out in those 
circumstances.
  I personally, for one, and those who march tomorrow have chosen 
life--not because it is an easy choice but because, to me, it is a 
clear one because the right to live is the one right upon which all the 
other rights we claim depend. Without life, there is no speech to 
protect, and there is no religion to practice. Without life, frankly, 
nothing else matters.
  I would point out that being pro-life is not just about the right to 
be born; it also means the right to live and to thrive. Once a child is 
born, that child depends on their parents or whoever their guardians 
are who are raising them, and they have a moral and legal duty to care 
for them--not just to feed them, not just to clothe them, not just to 
house them, but also to promote a safe and stable home and the chance 
at a good education and a better future.
  That is why I deeply believe that pro-life must also mean being pro-
parent. Being a parent is the most influential role anyone will ever 
have. It is the most important job any of us will ever have. That is 
why I worked to and we were successful in expanding the child tax 
credit 2 years ago. That is why I stand ready now to work with 
President Biden to expand it even further.
  I am concerned about some of the details of the policies he has 
outlined. For example, his proposal appears to unfairly benefit parents 
who send their children to commercial childcare over stay-at-home 
parents or grandparents or other caregivers. But this is an area where 
we have a common goal and one where I believe we can find a way to work 
together.
  It is also why I support creating the opportunity for every parent in 
America to have access to paid family leave, because no one should be 
thrown into welfare or debt or bankruptcy because they got pregnant, 
because they had a child.
  It is also, by the way, why I support school choice. In America, rich 
parents can afford to send their kids to any school they want, and they 
do. Upper middle class parents can move to neighborhoods with good 
public schools. But it is unfair that the only parents in America who 
are forced to send their children to the school the government tells 
them--even if that school is failing their children--are the parents 
who don't make enough money to have another option.
  For 21st-century America to move closer to fulfilling our founding 
principle of equality, of freedom, of fairness, every child deserves 
the right not just to be born but also the right to live and to thrive, 
the right not just to exist but the right to pursue and fulfill their 
potential.
  I believe that what is at stake is nothing less than our identity as 
a nation. If we become a place where your right to be born and your 
ability to succeed is determined by who your parents are or by the 
circumstances of your conception, then we may remain, indeed, a rich 
and a powerful and an important country, but we will no longer be a 
special one.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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