[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5897]
[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. Madam Speaker, I stand once again before this 
body with yet another Sunset Memorial.
  It is April 14, 2008, in the land of the free and the home of the 
brave, and before the sun set today in America, almost 4,000 more 
defenseless unborn children were killed by abortion on demand--just 
today. That is more than the number of innocent American lives that 
were lost on September 11th, only it happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,866 days since the travesty called 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 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 who 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 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 
a blind, invincible 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 is 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.'' 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 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 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 responsibility as we broke faith with 
nearly 4,000 more innocent American babies who died today without the 
protection that we should have given them.
  Madam Speaker, let me conclude, in the hope that perhaps someone new 
who heard this sunset memorial tonight will finally embrace the truth 
that abortion really does kill little babies, that it hurts mothers in 
ways that we can never express, and that 12,866 days spent 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 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 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.
  It is April 14, 2008--12,866 days since Roe v. Wade first stained the 
foundation of this nation with the blood of its own children--this, in 
the land of free and the home of the brave.

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