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Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, there comes a time in the history of nations when a civilized people must stand up and decide whether life is important, whether life is something special, and whether there is maybe something greater than just us that has to do with life.
It sickens me to see what has been going on with Planned Parenthood. Some of my first memories of my children were the ultrasounds I saw before they were born. We still keep those. We now find out, though, that this technology that can do wonders, that can save babies--now you can perform surgery in the uterus and the baby can survive. These same techniques are being used by Planned Parenthood to manipulate the baby into a position to harvest the baby's organs. I think all America should be sickened by this. It should also trouble us if we are a society that is not sickened by this.
I think the time has come to have a full-throated debate. The time has come to end all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Some will say: Well, where will people get their health care? We have 9,000 community health centers and 700 Planned Parenthood clinics. The only difference is abortion. In fact, you can get many things at a community health center you cannot get at Planned Parenthood, but the only thing you get at Planned Parenthood that you cannot get anywhere else is an abortion.
But this debate is not just about abortion; this debate is about little babies who have not given their consent.
It is about time we had a debate in our country about this, and it is about time we said enough is enough. The question is, Can a civilization long endure that does not respect life? Do we lose everything else that makes us human if we are unwilling to protect life? Can we stand up and defend our other rights if we are not willing to stand up and defend the most basic of rights?
I come here today to ask my fellow Senators to vote to defund Planned Parenthood. I hope they will.
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