[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 108 (Wednesday, June 21, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2171-S2174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Abortion
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I have a question for this body. It is
not a legislative question. It starts first with just a question. It is
a question for us to be able to think about, and it is a question,
quite frankly, that is essential that we think about but that we don't
think about very often because it is introspective, because it is
personal, because it connects both science and faith and culture and
background. But it is essential to who we are as people, human beings,
and it is this simple question: When does life begin?
I don't say it flippantly. It is a real question. It is a question
that we have had as a nation now the entire time we have been a nation,
and it has been decided by different States and by different people
from the very beginning of our Nation.
When does life begin? For some people, they would say life begins at
birth, when I can see that child, when they are screaming and crying
and just born, red-faced.
Some people would say it is actually 10 minutes before that birth;
that it is not at birth; that it is just a little bit before.
There are some people who would back it up, and they would say: No,
you are really a child when you are alive and you are viable--that is
somewhere around 21 weeks' gestation now--that when you are viable,
that is when you are really alive.
Some people would back it up even more to say: Not at 21 weeks; maybe
at 15 weeks because science would say at about 15 weeks that child in
the womb has a nervous system that is developed and they can feel pain.
Some would say: No, I would back it up more than that. I would
actually take it to 6 weeks because, at 6 weeks, it is the early stages
of a beating heart, and we would say, when that heart beat is actually
happening, that is when that child is alive.
And others would back it up even further and would say: When that
child has unique DNA that is different DNA than the mom or the dad--in
fact, in that mom's body, every single cell in her body has the same
DNA marker except for those cells. For those cells in the woman's body,
that DNA is different. They are the only cells that are different, and,
as they multiply and divide, that DNA signature grows, but it stays
right there with that child.
It is a real question.
Fifty-one years ago, our country had different opinions. Different
States had different ideas about when life began.
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And each State voted, and each State had a debate in their State about
when life began. That was what we were like from the very beginning of
the country up to 51 years ago.
And then, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision happened in the Supreme
Court, and, at that time, nine Justices said: Nope, individual States
and people aren't going to decide this; the nine of us are going to
decide this.
And for almost 50 years, the law of the land was that those Justices
all made one determination for everybody--until 52 weeks ago, when that
same Supreme Court, nine Justices again, said: No, this should be back
in the hands of the people, where it has always been, because Justices
shouldn't decide this issue. This is a decision we the people should
make.
Justice Alito wrote the opinion in that decision, and he said this:
Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.
He said:
And far from bringing about a national settlement of the
abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and
deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and
return the issue of abortion to the people's elected
representatives.
The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon
it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our
democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and
then voting.
It is back to the people. So that is where we are.
Now, 1 year after the Dobbs decision came out, on the June 24 of last
year, it is still back to the same conversation. We still haven't
agreed as a nation when life begins. Maybe, we never will. But as a
nation, now, that conversation is happening all over the country.
Individuals are having the dialogue: When does life begin?
In the past year, there is really no way to know how many children
are alive today that would not have been alive prior to the Dobbs
decision. About half the States in America have already passed some
sort of law to limit the number of abortions in their State, while
about half of the rest of the country has either left abortion policies
in place in their State or even expanded them.
Some of our States have no abortion at all in their States, and in
some States, literally, you can have abortion all the way up until the
second before delivery--late-term, literally the second before
delivery--and choose to have an elective abortion. That is a pretty
wide spread in our country. It is a pretty wide set of opinions.
And while we don't know how many children are alive today, we can be
certain that there are tens of thousands of children alive right now
who would not have been alive a year ago, prior to the Dobbs decision.
That is tens of thousands of children who are alive that, in the next
few months, will be giggling and laughing. Next year, they will be
running around singing silly songs. Two years after that, they will be
in kindergarten learning their colors. They will be alive today because
of that Dobbs decision. And while I understand some people are
disappointed that those kids are alive, I am not, and I am convinced
our communities and our schools and our workplaces in the future will
be glad they are there.
In the past year, while a lot of people have been celebrating the
value of every single one of those children who have been born, there
are some who have not been.
In fact, in my frustration, this Biden administration has been
obsessed with increasing the number of abortions in America, not
decreasing them.
Today, there have been numerous unanimous consent requests from the
floor of this Senate asking to be able to take out all of the laws
across the entire country and to be able to move it back to there is
abortion on demand at any stage. They all lost on the floor today, but
there is a push on the floor of this Senate today to be able to expand
abortion on demand all the way up until moments before birth.
This administration has taken even more aggressive actions than the
Senate took today. This administration has shifted a policy
longstanding on mail order abortions--do-it-yourself abortions at home,
to be able to take a two-drug cocktail to be able to have an abortion
at home--where they have stripped out the rules that you have to see a
doctor to get this prescription, remembering that this prescription
actually takes the life of a child and causes excessive bleeding. You
don't have to see a doctor anymore. They have now shifted that to say
you have to see a medical professional of any type.
You also don't have to have any screening for ectopic pregnancies. If
you take this two-drug cocktail--and the only way you can really
determine that is a medical examination--then it could actually kill
the woman while it takes the life of that child as well.
If you have the wrong blood type--and the only way to really
determine that is to go see a medical professional, although the Biden
administration is now saying you no longer have to see them--but if you
take this particular two-drug cocktail and have the wrong blood type,
it will actually make you infertile for the rest of your life as well
as take the life of your child. So if you want to have a baby later,
you can't.
The only way you would know one way or the other on that is actually
having a medical screening and test, but the Biden administration is so
obsessed with increasing the number of abortions in America, they have
now said: Don't worry about going to the doctor. Don't worry about if
you have an ectopic pregnancy or the wrong blood type.
In fact, they have taken even an extra step and have said to
emergency rooms: If someone shows up in an emergency room who has taken
this two-drug cocktail and is excessively bleeding, you do not have to
report it to the FDA unless she dies.
Every other condition--excessive bleeding, on the edge of life,
emergency room trips--don't report those. Those don't get reported
anymore at all. Literally, they are saying we don't need the
information about other side effects--only death--for this particular
drug. That is an enormous shift. That is an administration that is
obsessed with saying: We need more abortions in America, and if things
go bad with this two-drug cocktail, don't tell us.
I mentioned before that there is a very, very old Federal law that
still stands in Federal law that says you can't mail anything that is
going to cause an abortion. It is against Federal law to put something
in the mail and mail it to someone that causes an abortion. The Biden
administration literally has put out a public opinion from their Office
of Legal Counsel saying that law really doesn't apply anymore; it is
old. It is trying to say: Well, it means something different than what
it actually says. I would encourage anyone to actually read that
statute and to come to any other conclusion other than what it says.
The Biden administration has made it very clear under the Department
of Justice that, we know this is against Federal law to be able to mail
abortion materials, but we are not going to prosecute this. Literally,
it is against the law, but we don't care--so much so that even if a
woman ends up in the hospital, in the emergency room and checked in,
don't even tell us unless she dies.
Last summer, there were several of my colleagues who brought a bill
to this floor to give a $100,000 fine to any pro-life pregnancy center
that didn't perform abortions. Now, just let that soak in for a minute.
Now, it didn't pass, but this body was debating and trying to shut down
the advice of people who are in pro-life centers who say: I believe in
the value of every child.
These pro-life centers, if you have never been to one, they are
almost always completely run by volunteers. They provide ultrasounds to
individuals who are trying to figure out ``Am I really pregnant?'' They
provide free pregnancy tests to be able to help people as they are
thinking through it. And, yes, they talk about that they believe in the
value in life. But they also provide formula for babies, clothes for
babies, diapers for babies. They provide parental advice and counsel
for new parents who are terrified, and they say: Hey, we are going to
walk with you. If you are considering having an abortion because you
are afraid you will be alone and no one will be with you, we will be
with you.
Last summer, a bill came to this floor to try to do a $100,000 fine
to those folks who are trying to give away free formula, free diapers,
and free mentoring, to people who would say: If you keep your baby, we
will walk with you through these tough times.
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This administration, the Biden administration, has shifted our VA
hospitals into abortion clinics. It is against Federal law, but they
have done it anyway. Literally, there is a Federal law that was put in
place 30 years ago about VA hospitals and abortions, and it doesn't
allow them. This administration has told the VA hospitals ``Ignore that
Federal law that was passed 30 years ago because we don't like it; we
are not going to enforce it'' and is literally taking--because there
are not dollars allocated to this--literally taking dollars away from
our veterans and their healthcare and moving it to doing abortions in
our VA centers instead.
As far as we can tell, there are thousands of abortions that have
happened in our VA centers across our country in the last few months,
all of them paid for by Federal tax dollars, which is against the law,
in a facility that was specifically noted could not perform abortions,
which is against the law, using Federal dollars to pay for it.
It should not be a surprise to you that President Biden's budget--
every year he has been President, he has asked to take away the Hyde
amendment. People may not know what the Hyde amendment is, but the Hyde
amendment is what prevents abortion dollars from being used--from
Federal tax dollars.
A lot of people across the country, I understand, have completely
different opinions about abortion, but almost every person I talked to
would say: I have a different opinion about abortion, but I don't think
American tax dollars should be used to pay for elective abortions. But
every year, President Biden has asked to remove the Hyde amendment so
Federal dollars can be used to pay for abortions, elective abortions,
across the country.
This administration is so incredibly extreme about increasing the
number of abortions in America, it has even extended to our southern
border.
The people who are here in this room know that I have come to talk
about our southern border multiple times to try to bring solutions.
There are solutions that are, quite frankly, nonpartisan solutions for
how he we can solve some of the difficult issues of illegal immigration
on our southern border. I am a huge fan of legal immigration, but I
think unchecked illegal immigration and chaos on our southern border is
a bad idea.
This administration, in the middle of what is going on on our
southern border right now, has put out what they call Field Guidance 21
out of Health and Human Services to say that if an unaccompanied minor
comes across our southern border who happens to be pregnant, that
unaccompanied minor is to be relocated to a State that allows abortion.
The guidance gives information about how to even transport individuals
who are pregnant who cross our border to abortion clinics, and it gives
special guidance for those who are in their last weeks of pregnancy on
how to be able to take care of those moms as you transport them to get
an abortion--late-term abortions. That is in the HHS guidance that is
happening right now on our southern border.
This administration created a website to promote abortions with
official Federal dollars that is connected to the White House website.
In fact, this administration literally put it as a front-page piece on
the White House website: Here is how to be able to get an abortion in
America. They have given a $1.5 million grant to create a national
abortion hotline so that anyone who wants an abortion, it would be
easier to be able to get it. They have created a reproductive rights
task force to try to evaluate all States and be able to get information
out on how to be able to increase abortions.
When the COVID money was done, now a year and a half ago--the
previous bipartisan bills on COVID all had a restriction on any of that
money being used for abortions until the last partisan bill was
actually put out, and that specifically allows for abortion with COVID
relief dollars.
The Department of Justice did not engage when pro-life centers were
being attacked. They have engaged to be able to go after people who
oppose abortion. In the past couple of years, there have been 329
attacks on Catholic churches and 87 attacks on pro-life centers, just
since the Dobbs leak came out prior to the actual release in June, but
there have been no prosecutions to go after those folks. Apparently, if
you attack a Catholic church or a pro-life center, the Department of
Justice is not interested.
There are also conscience protections. Again, not all Americans agree
on the issue of abortion. Many doctors and nurses go into medical
practice because they have a passion about life. We have conscious
protections in Federal law right now that if you tell your employer in
a hospital that you have a conscience issue on performing an abortion
and they compel you to do that, the Federal Government is charged to be
able to step in and make that employer protect your conscience rights.
That has happened in the past under past administrations, but under
this administration, literally when this administration came in, there
was a nurse who had been compelled to perform an abortion against her
conscience at the University of Vermont Medical Center. She had told
her employer in advance that she did not want to participate in
abortions, that she believed in the value of every child.
She came in one day to work. She was called into a surgery area, and
the physician looked her in the face and said: Don't hate me for this.
She said: What?
Then she turned and realized that she had been called in and was
being compelled--or she would lose her job--to perform an abortion and
to be a part of that abortion procedure.
Typically, under previous administrations, that person would have
been protected. This HHS dropped the case. Literally, it was midway
through. The Department of Justice is no longer prosecuting. They are
saying that is not relevant; literally saying: If you have a conscience
issue as a nurse or a doctor performing an abortion, too bad. Change
your occupation. We are not going to protect you.
Oh, and did I mention that if you are in the U.S. military now, under
the new Biden policy, and you went to your commanding officer and said
``Hey, my grandmother passed away. I would like to get 5 days off to go
travel, to go to my grandmother's funeral,'' you would be told no. But
if you go to your commanding officer and say ``I would like to be gone
5 days to get an abortion,'' not only would your commanding officer,
under the Biden administration, be instructed ``Yes, you can have 5
days' paid leave off,'' but they would also say to you ``How far are
you going to travel? We are going to pay for your travel to reimburse
you while you are gone.''
So if you need to go to your aunt's funeral, you don't get days off
because that is too distant of a relative, but if you need to get an
abortion, not only will this administration give you 5 days off to go
get it, they will literally pay for your travel there and back to be
able to go do it, not to mention the change in the Mexico City policy.
Now we are paying for abortions overseas currently with Federal
dollars.
HHS launched a new web page that actually gave out what they call
creative ways for health clinics to advise teenagers on sex, birth
control, pregnancy testing, and abortion. HHS, in fact, has proposed a
new rule that they are in the process of finalizing which redefines
``reproductive healthcare'' to include abortion. It prohibits entities
from cooperating with law enforcement or a court order if an
investigation is related to an abortion. It redefines the word
``person'' to ``a human being that is born alive.''
HHS has also changed the billing requirements for the ACA--the
Affordable Care Act--and has blatantly ignored the law on how abortion
funding is done, in direct opposition to when this body debated that
publicly.
If I can just mention one other thing, my State, like every other
State, gets grants for what they call title X grants. These are Federal
grants for cancer screenings for women, for contraceptives, for those
that are in poverty. That is normal. We have that all over the country
for every State. It is a typical grant that comes out to be able to
have women in poverty get cancer screenings and get access to
contraceptives.
My State was just informed that the Biden administration is cutting
off our title X funds and will not send Federal dollars to Oklahoma for
cancer screenings for women or contraceptives for women in poverty to
my State. Do you want to know why?
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The reason that the Biden administration cut off my State is because
my State would not include an abortion hotline in all of our medical
information going out to the citizens of my State. That is right. If my
State would not promote ways to get abortion to women in my State, then
the women of my State can't get access to cancer screenings or
contraceptives for low-income women.
Literally, what they are saying is: You either promote abortion in
your State, or women in your State can't get access to screenings. That
is this administration's extreme policy on abortion.
Listen, I understand we have differences of opinion. I happen to
believe every child is valuable. This administration believes some
children are disposable and some children are valuable. I just don't
find any child disposable in my world. I think they are all valuable. I
think they are all important. I think we look in the eyes of those tens
of thousands of children that have been born in the past year post Roe,
and we look them in the face and we say, I am glad you are here. What
are you going to be? What are you going to invent? What are you going
to do? What is life going to be like for you?
And like millions of other Americans, they will have a chance to live
out life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because we are right
there looking in their eyes. Let's have this conversation. Let's keep
this dialogue going.
We are a nation that should talk about hard things in respectful
ways. But let's talk about it, because there is lots of families in the
days ahead that are counting on us living out our values and
respectfully having dialogue where we disagree, because I think kids
are worth it. So let's have that dialogue. One year after the Dobbs
decision, we are not resolved, but at least we are talking about it
again.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.