Sunset Memorial

Floor Speech

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.

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.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) is recognized for 5 minutes.

(Ms. SOLIS addressed the House. Her remarks will appear hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.)

Source