[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2486]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1600
                            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 yet another sunset memorial. It is February 26, 2008, in the 
land of the free, home of the brave; and before the sun sets 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 Americans that we lost on September 11, only it 
happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,818 days since the travesty called Roe v. 
Wade was handed down; and since then, the very foundation of this 
Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 50 million of its own 
children. Some of them cried and screamed as they died; but because it 
was amniotic fluid passing over the vocal cords instead of air, we 
could not hear them in this Chamber.
  All of them had at least four things in common: first, they were each 
just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone. Second, each 
one of them died a nameless and lonely death and each of their mothers, 
whether she realizes it or not, will never be quite the same. And all 
of the gifts these children might have brought to humanity are now lost 
to us forever.
  Yet even in the full glare of such tragedy, this generation clings to 
blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself in our own 
silent genocide which mercilessly annihilates the most helpless victims 
to date, those yet unborn.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps it's 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 its happiness and not its 
destruction is the chief and only object of good government.'' The 
phrase in the 14th amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It 
says: ``No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property 
without due process of law.'' Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of our 
citizens and their constitutional rights is why we are all here. It is 
our sworn oath.
  The bedrock foundation of this Republic is that clarion 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. Every conflict and battle 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 entire 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 foundational 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 today without the 
protection we should have given them.
  Perhaps today, Mr. Speaker, maybe someone new who hears this sunset 
memorial will finally realize that abortion really does kill little 
babies, that it hurts mothers in ways that we can never express, and 
that 12,818 days spent killing nearly 50 million unborn children is 
enough and that America, the same America that rejected human slavery 
and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust, is still 
courageous enough, compassionate enough to find a better way than 
abortion on demand.
  So tonight may we each remind ourselves that our own days in this 
Chamber and in this sunshine of life are numbered and that all too soon 
each one 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 
another day to come, may that be the day when we finally hear the cries 
of the innocent unborn, may that be the day when we finally 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.
  It is February 26, 2008, Mr. Speaker, 12,818 days since Roe v. Wade 
first stained the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own 
children, and this is in the land of the free and the home of the 
brave.

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