[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
                            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. Madam Speaker, I stand with yet another sunset 
memorial. It is March 10, 2008, 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, Madam Speaker. That's more than the number of innocent 
American lives that were lost on September 11, only it happens every 
day.
  It has now been exactly 12,831 days since the travesty called Roe v. 
Wade was handed down by an arrogant Supreme Court. Since then, the very 
foundation of this Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 50 
million of our own children.
  Some of them, Madam Speaker, cried and screamed as they died, but 
because it was amniotic fluid passing over their vocal cords instead of 
air, we couldn't hear them.
  All of them had at least four things in common: They were each just 
little babies that had done nothing wrong to anyone; each one of them 
died a nameless and lonely death; and each of their mothers, whether 
she realizes it immediately or not, will never be the same; and all the 
gifts these children might have brought to humanity are now lost 
forever.
  Yet, even in the full glare of such tragedy, this generation still 
clings to a blind, invisible ignorance while history repeats itself and 
our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless of 
all victims to date, those yet unborn.
  Madam 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 only 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.'' Madam Speaker, protecting the 
lives of our innocent 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 core commitment to this self-evident 
truth. It has made us the beacon of hope for the whole world. It is who 
we are.
  And yet, Madam 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 responsibilities as we broke faith with 
nearly 4,000 more innocent American babies who died today without the 
protection that we should have given them.
  It seems so sad, Madam Speaker, that this sunset memorial may be the 
only public remembrance these children who died today will ever have in 
this Chamber. So, as small a gesture as it might be, I would 
respectfully ask this moment for a moment of silence for those lost 
little Americans.
  Madam Speaker, let me conclude in the hope that perhaps someone new 
who hears this sunset memorial tonight will finally realize that 
abortion really does kill little babies, that it hurts mothers in ways 
that we can never express, and that 12,831 days killing nearly 50 
million unborn children in America is enough; and that the America that 
rejected human slavery and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi 
Holocaust is still courageous and compassionate enough to find a better 
way for mothers and their babies than abortion on demand.
  So tonight, Madam Speaker, may we each remind ourselves that our own 
days in this sunshine of life are also numbered, and that all too soon, 
each of us will walk through these Chambers for the very last time. And 
if it should be that this Congress is allowed to convene at 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 find the humanity, the 
courage, and the will to embrace together our human and 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 March 10, 2008, Madam Speaker, 12,831 days since Roe v. Wade 
first stained the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own 
children. This, in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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