[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15403]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            PROTECTING LIFE

  (Mr. BUDD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BUDD. Mr. Speaker, the Founding Fathers enshrined the guarantee 
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They regarded life as a 
core promise and one that was to be protected. The Federal Government 
is responsible for protecting those rights, and currently we are 
failing at that responsibility.
  As I speak in this body, America is one of only seven countries in 
the world that have legalized late-term elective abortion after 20 
weeks. More specifically, it is estimated that approximately 13,000 
late-term abortions are carried out in our country each year on healthy 
babies.
  This is simply immoral and, as lawmakers, we have the ability to take 
commonsense measures to protect the unborn. The bill that we are voting 
on today, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is one of those 
measures.
  Mr. Speaker, every human being was given inalienable rights, chief 
among them being life itself. Governments are supposed to protect those 
rights. As a lawmaker, I plan to do so by supporting the bill before us 
today. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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