[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6567-6568]
[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 before this body tonight 
with what I have started to call a sunset memorial. It is April 22, 
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. That is just today. That is more 
than the number of innocent American lives that were lost on September 
11, Mr. Speaker, only it happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 12,874 days since the travesty called Roe 
versus Wade was handed down. Since then, the very foundation of this 
Nation has been stained by the blood of more than 50 million of its 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: First, they were 
each just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone. And, each 
one of them had a nameless and lonely death. And, each of their 
mothers, whether she realizes it immediately or not, will never be the 
same. And all of the gifts that these children might have brought to 
humanity, Mr. Speaker, are now lost forever.
  And yet even in the full glare of such tragedy, this generation still 
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.

[[Page 6568]]

  Mr. 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.''
  Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of our innocent citizens and their 
constitutional rights is why we are all here. It is our sworn oath, Mr. 
Speaker.
  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. And 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 that we should given them.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude in the hope that perhaps 
someone new who has 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 12,874 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 Nazi Holocaust, is still courageous and compassionate 
enough as a Nation to find a better way for mothers and their unborn 
babies than abortion on demand.
  So tonight, Mr. 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 children, and 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, this is April 22, 2008, 12,874 days since Roe versus 
Wade first stained the very foundations of this Nation with the blood 
of its own children, and this in the land of the free and the home of 
the brave.

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