[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 24, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S68-S69]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             MARCH FOR LIFE

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, we are in a historic season as a 
country. We are pausing to ask ourselves a question that quite frankly 
we have not really asked ourselves in a long time: When does life 
begin?
  It is not just philosophical. It is not just theological. It is not 
just scientific. It is personal, as each person has to come to a 
decision: When does life begin?
  And when the Supreme Court made the Dobbs decision last summer, that 
actually put America back in the position that it had been in 
historically. Our Nation is 234 years old, and for 185 of those years, 
each State passed State laws to be able to determine the decision about 
this issue of when does life begin.
  So the Dobbs decision was not a radical decision. It is the typical 
decision for Americans, quite frankly, for 185 of our 234 years. But it 
doesn't settle the issue of abortion. Abortion is still legal in 
America. As much as there is all the noise around the country right now 
that abortion has somehow gone away, it certainly has not. Abortion is 
still all over the country.
  But it has pushed Americans, and it has pushed Americans specifically 
on this one issue: When does life begin?
  Quite frankly, I have had fascinating conversations with people over 
the past 8 months that they had never actually contemplated this issue, 
that they had never stopped to be able to think about it. They just 
said: Abortion is legal. Abortion is legal. It is just a woman's 
choice, a woman's choice, a woman's choice, and I don't want to think 
about it.
  But when the decision came down, a lot of people had to stop and say: 
When does life begin? Is it at birth? Is it after birth? Is it 10 
minutes before birth? Is it a month before birth? Is it 2 months before 
birth?
  Quite frankly, I have had this conversation with a lot of folks, and 
some folks have told me: Well, it is at viability.
  And I say: OK. Define viability for me, because viability in 1973, 
when the Court was struggling with Roe v. Wade, was very different than 
viability now. Medical science has advanced tremendously. So is 
viability 26 weeks or is it at 21 weeks of gestation? And if it is at 
21 weeks, what is the difference between 20 weeks and 19 weeks? What is 
the difference between 18 weeks?
  I look at these two pictures right here of this child--this one is 
out of the womb, and this one is 5 months earlier--and I ask the simple 
question: What is the difference between these two pictures of this 
child?
  The only difference between that sonogram picture in the womb and 
that child outside of the womb is time. That is it.
  The same DNA is in this child as in this child--the same parents, the 
same development. Everything is the same. The only difference is time.
  I am 5 months older than I was 5 months ago because I have aged 5 
months. So did that child from that moment.
  So my question is very simple: When is a child a child? When does 
life begin? Is this one not alive and this one is alive simply because 
he is 5 months older? When is a child a child?

[[Page S69]]

  For 50 years, there have been a group of folks--this year there were 
tens of thousands--who gather out on the Mall just to be able to 
celebrate every single child. They have done it now for five decades, 
since the Roe v. Wade decision came down. They have gathered on the 
Mall, and they just said: We believe every child is valuable--every 
child. There aren't some children who are disposable and some children 
who are valuable. We think every child is valuable.
  Now, that is not a radical concept. I have folks who yell and scream 
at me, quite frankly, and say: A woman has the right to be able to 
choose.
  And I ask just the very simple question of them, in great respect: 
Has the right to choose to be able to take the life of a child at what 
age?
  Because that child is valuable and so is that child, because it is 
the same child, just at a different age.
  I celebrate the folks who have for five decades gathered on The Mall 
and have marched for life and have said: We will not forget the value 
of every single child, because tens of millions of children have died 
in this country in the last 50 years after the Roe v. Wade decision.
  While abortion is still available in America, everyone is having to 
pause and ask a simple question: What do I believe about life? Not what 
is convenient; what do I believe about life?
  I have been very outspoken on this floor about my frustration with 
the Biden administration. I have not held back on this because they are 
the most pro-abortion Presidency in American history. They actively 
work on increasing the number of abortions in America, and I find that 
not only appalling, I find that painful, that we as a nation have a 
policy of finding ways to increase the death of children. That is not 
who we should be as a nation. We should be working to be able to 
protect the life of every single child.
  The most basic science that anyone will work through is, if you look 
at this child in the womb, there is no difference in this child and 
this child outside the womb. That is the most basic of science.
  If you want to look at science, look at science, but then ask 
yourself the personal question as well: When does life begin?
  The argument about abortion--it is not just a legal argument. 
Everyone wants to take it to a legal issue, quite frankly, because this 
body is a legal body, but the issue of abortion is not just a legal 
issue, and it is not just about making abortion illegal in the country. 
I would tell you, I am working to make abortion unthinkable in this 
country because we look past the convenience and look at this child's 
face and say: Why does that child not deserve life like every one of 
us? Because at its most basic level, there is no difference between any 
one of us in this room and when we were at this stage right here in our 
mother's womb except for time.
  So I ask this body a simple question: When does life begin, and are 
some children really disposable and some children are valuable? That is 
the question each of us needs to decide, and I am proud to stand with 
those who have marched for 50 years to say children are valuable, all 
of them--all of them.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kaine). The Senator from Kansas.

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