[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2202-2203]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SUNSET MEMORIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I stand once again before this 
body with another sunset memorial.
  It is February 14, 2008, Valentine's Day, in the land of the free and 
the home of the brave. And before the sunset today in America, almost 
4,000 more defenseless unborn children were killed by abortion on 
demand. That's just today, Mr. Speaker. That is more than the number of 
innocent lives that America lost on September 11, only it happens every 
day.
  It has now been exactly 12,806 days since the tragic judicial fiat of 
Roe v. Wade was handed down. Since then, the very foundation of this 
Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 50 million of America's 
own children. Some of them, Mr. Speaker, cried and screamed as they 
died, but because it was amniotic fluid passing over the vocal cords 
instead of air, we couldn't hear them.
  And all of them had at least four things in common. They were each 
just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone, and each one 
of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each of their other 
mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never quite be the same. 
And all the gifts that these children might have brought to humanity 
are now lost forever. Yet, even in the full glare of such tragedy, this 
generation clings to blindness and

[[Page 2203]]

invincible ignorance while history repeats itself and our own silent 
genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless of all victims to 
date, those yet unborn.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps it's more important for those of us in this 
Chamber to remind ourselves again of why we are really all here. Thomas 
Jefferson said, ``The care of human life and happiness and not its 
destruction is the chief and only object of good government.''
  Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of our innocent citizens and their 
constitutional rights is why we are all here. It is our sworn oath. The 
phrase in the 14th amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It 
says, ``No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property 
without due process of law.''
  The bedrock foundation of this Republic is the declaration, not the 
casual notion, but the declaration of the self-evident truth that all 
human beings are created equal and endowed by their creator with the 
unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And 
every conflict our Nation has ever faced can be traced to our 
commitment to this core self-evident truth. It has made us the beacon 
of hope for the whole world. It is who we are. And yet, Mr. Speaker, 
another day has passed, and we in this body have failed again to honor 
that commitment. We failed our sworn oath and our God-given 
responsibility as we broke faith with nearly 4,000 more innocent 
American babies who died without the protection that we should have 
given them.
  But perhaps tonight, Mr. Speaker, maybe just one someone new who has 
heard this sunset memorial will finally realize that abortion really 
does kill a baby, that it hurts mothers in ways that we could never 
express, and that 12,806 days spent killing nearly 50 million children 
in America is enough, and that this Nation is great enough to find a 
better way than abortion on demand.
  So, Mr. Speaker, may we each remind ourselves that our own days in 
this sunshine of life are numbered, and that all too soon each of us 
will walk from these Chambers for the very last time. And if it should 
be that this Congress is allowed to convene on yet other day to come, 
may that be the day when we hear, when we finally hear the cries of the 
unborn. May that be the day when we find the humanity, the courage, and 
the will to embrace together our human and our constitutional duty to 
protect the least of these, our tiny American brothers and sisters from 
this murderous scourge upon our Nation called abortion on demand.
  Mr. Speaker, it is February 14, 2008, 12,806 days since Roe v. Wade 
first stained the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own 
children. This, on Valentine's Day, in the land of the free and the 
home of the brave.

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