[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.

[[Page S2172]]

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.

[[Page S2173]]

  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.