[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1643-1645]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       A SUNSET MEMORIAL IN MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF ROE V. WADE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Daines). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Franks) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, in the coming days, we will have 
the anniversary of Roe v. Wade upon us. It will be the 41st anniversary 
of abortion on demand in this country. Now, Mr. Speaker, just to be 
clear, Roe v. Wade was a Supreme Court decision that was handed down 
that no one voted on except the Supreme Court, themselves. This was not 
something that went through the Congress. This was not something that 
the people supported. In fact, every State in the Union at that time 
protected innocent unborn children. When Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton 
were handed down January 22, 1973, America was plunged into the crimson 
tragedy of abortion on demand, and since then, 56 million little unborn 
Americans have lost their lives.
  In fact, it was this year, Mr. Speaker, that the world learned of the 
gruesome acts committed by Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist in 
Philadelphia currently serving a life prison term for murdering three 
babies that survived his attempts to abort them. When these babies 
survived Gosnell's attempts to kill them before they were born, he 
would sever their spinal cords with a pair of scissors. Testimony from 
former Gosnell employees described the babies screaming in pain as 
their lives were taken moments after they were born.
  Mr. Speaker, born or unborn, we now know that these babies feel pain. 
It is an incontrovertible scientific fact that an unborn child can feel 
pain by at least the start of the sixth month after fertilization, and, 
Mr. Speaker, very credible research shows that they feel pain much 
sooner than that.
  The graphic accounts from Gosnell's trial remind us that abortion is 
a brutal, torturous tragedy, yet such gruesome acts happen daily in 
abortion clinics all across this country. Perhaps the most astonishing 
thing about learning about the torture chamber that Kermit Gosnell 
presided over was the tragic reality that it happens all over America, 
even as we speak.
  Now, I know, Mr. Speaker, that historically, great intensity has 
surrounded debates over protecting the lives of those who, through no 
fault of their own, find themselves obscured in the shadows of 
humanity, but it encourages me greatly that in nearly all of those 
cases, the collective conscience of this Nation eventually shifted. 
When we focused on the humanity of the victim and the inhumanity of 
what was being done to them, our hearts began to change. Mr. Speaker, 
that same thing is beginning to happen in America in this debate.
  I don't know what happens when we finally wake up and see something 
for the tragic reality that it is. I don't know what changed our mind 
in all of the other great genocides of the past, but it did happen, and 
that gives me great hope, and today in America, we are finally 
considering the real question, and the real question is simply

[[Page 1644]]

this: Does abortion take the life of a child? We are finally beginning, 
Mr. Speaker, we are finally beginning to realize, as a Nation, that it 
does.

                              {time}  1845

  We are finally beginning to realize that the brutal killing of 
innocent, unborn children liberates no one and that 50 million little 
lost American lives--56 million now--Mr. Speaker, is enough.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, this legislative day has come to an end, and sunset 
approaches fast in Washington. I stand here one more night, and I offer 
this House what I call a sunset memorial to remember the victims of Roe 
v. Wade. Because you see, Mr. Speaker, before the sun sets today in 
America, almost 4,000 more defenseless, unborn children will have been 
killed by abortion on demand in the land of the free and the home of 
the brave.
  Mr. Speaker, that is more than the number of innocent lives lost on 
September 11 in this country, and it happens every day. It has now been 
41 years since the tragedy called Roe v. Wade was first handed down. 
Since then, Mr. Speaker, the very foundation of this Nation has been 
stained by the blood of almost 56 million of its own unborn children. 
Some of them, Mr. Speaker, many of them cried and screamed as they 
died. But because it was amniotic fluid going over the vocal cords 
instead of air, we couldn't hear them.
  Now, all of them, Mr. Speaker, had four things in common: first and 
foremost, they were just little babies that had done nothing wrong to 
anyone. Each of them died a tragic and profoundly lonely death. Each 
one of their mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never be the 
same. And each one of their mothers is a victim, and this society can't 
see that either sometimes. All of the gifts that these children might 
have brought to humanity are now lost forever, Mr. Speaker. No one 
knows which one of them might have found a cure for cancer. Or who 
knows, maybe they would have just loved flowers.
  Yet even in the glare of such tragedy, this generation still clings 
to a blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself over and 
over again, and our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the 
most helpless of all victims--those yet born.
  Now, ironically, I have heard President Barack Obama speak such 
poignant words that whether he knows it or not apply so profoundly to 
this tragedy of abortion on demand in America. And if I could, Mr. 
Speaker, I would like to quote excerpted portions of his comments, 
because his words move me very deeply.
  He said:

       This is our first task, caring for our children. It is our 
     first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything 
     right. That is how, as a society, we will be judged.

  The President went on to say:

       And by that measure can we truly say as a Nation that we 
     are meeting our obligations. Can we honestly say that we are 
     doing enough to keep our children--all of them--

  And I'm quoting, Mr. Speaker:

     --all of them safe from harm? Can we say that we are truly 
     doing enough to give all the children of this country the 
     chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and 
     with purpose?
       I have been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we 
     are honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We are not doing 
     enough, and we will have to change.

  Oh, how true the President's words are, Mr. Speaker.
  The President also said:

       We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end, 
     and to end them, we must change.

  And then the President asked:

       Are we really prepared to say that we are powerless in the 
     face of such carnage that the politics are too hard? Are we 
     really prepared to say that such violence visited on our 
     children year after year after year is somehow the price of 
     freedom?

  Mr. Speaker, is this not the most relevant question we should all be 
asking in the midst of this genocidal murder of thousands of unborn 
children in America every day? The President has said:

       Our journey is not complete until all our children are 
     cared for and cherished and always safe from harm. That is 
     our generation's task, to make these words, these rights, 
     these values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness 
     real for every American.

  Mr. Speaker, never have I so deeply agreed with any words ever spoken 
by President Barack Obama as those I have just quoted. Yet this 
President in the most merciless distortion of logic, reason, and 
humanity itself refuses to apply these majestic words to helpless, 
unborn babies. Oh, how I wish that somehow Mr. Obama would open his 
heart and his ears to his own words and ask himself in the core of his 
soul why his words that should apply to all children cannot include the 
most helpless and vulnerable of all children.
  When Barack Obama took his oath of office no more than 200 yards from 
this well, he put his hand down on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln 
placed his hand upon when he was sworn in to take his Presidential 
oath. Mr. Speaker, we should remember that we honor Abraham Lincoln 
most because he found the courage as President of the United States--in 
the days of slavery, he found the humanity within himself to recognize 
the image of God stamped on the soul of slaves that the Supreme Court 
said were not human and that the tide of public opinion didn't 
recognize as protectable under the law.
  Could it be--could it be, Mr. Speaker, that President Barack Obama 
might consider that perspective as well as his own legacy, and even 
eternity itself, Mr. Speaker, and recognize that these little, unborn 
children look so desperately to him now for help? Could it be that the 
President might finally remember that on the pages of the Bible on 
which he laid his hand were written the words in red:

       Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these My 
     brethren, you have done it unto Me.

  Whether he does or does not, it is time for those of us in this 
Chamber to remind ourselves of why we are really 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.

  Let me say that again, Mr. Speaker.
  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 all Americans and their 
constitutional rights is why we are all here. 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 inalienable rights: the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness.
  Every conflict, every 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, Mr. Speaker. It is who we are.
  Yet, today, another day has passed, and we in this body have failed 
again to honor that foundational commitment. We have failed our sworn 
oath and our God-given responsibility as we broke faith with nearly 
4,000 more innocent American little babies who died today without the 
protection that we should have given them.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this sunset memorial in the hopes 
that perhaps someone new who heard it tonight will finally embrace the 
truth that abortion really does kill little babies, that it hurts 
mothers in ways that we can never express or understand or even fathom, 
and that it is time we stood up together again and looked up to the 
Declaration of Independence and that we remember that we are the same 
America that rejected human slavery and we marched into Europe to 
arrest the Nazi Holocaust and we are still the courageous and 
compassionate Nation that can find a better way for mothers and their 
unborn children than abortion on demand.
  It is still not too late for us to make a better world and for 
America to be the one that leads the rest of the planet, just as we did 
in the days of slavery from this tragic genocide of murdering nearly 
4,000 of our own children every day.

[[Page 1645]]

  So, now, Mr. Speaker, as we consider the plight of the unborn after 
41 years under Roe v. Wade, maybe we can each remind ourselves that our 
own days in this sunshine of life are all numbered, and that all too 
soon each of us will also 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, may that be the day--may that be the day--when we will 
finally hear the cries of these innocent, unborn babies. Maybe that 
will be the day we can find the humanity, the courage, and the will to 
embrace together our human and our constitutional duty to protect 
these, the least of our tiny little American brothers and sisters from 
this murderous scourge upon our Nation called abortion on demand.
  Mr. Speaker, the sun is now setting. It is now 41 years, almost to 
the day, since Roe v. Wade first stained the foundations 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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