Parkridge Pregnancy Center

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the good people at Parkridge Pregnancy Medical Clinic in Lubbock, Texas.

Parkridge, a nonprofit pregnancy center, is celebrating 26 years of providing compassionate care to mothers throughout their pregnancies, and often in the most difficult of circumstances.

By providing ultrasounds, medical services, material assistance, and even ministering to mothers' deeper emotional and spiritual needs, the people at Parkridge are truly and literally saving lives.

You see, Madam Speaker, they believe, like I do, that all life is a gift from God. They believe in the words etched into our Declaration of Independence, our founding principle and fundamental belief that all of us are created equally by God and endowed by our creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But for nearly 50 years now, we have fallen short of that national ethic. Ever since the Supreme Court erred in Roe v. Wade, we have failed to protect the sacred right for the most vulnerable among us, rejecting the notion that life at every stage is equally valuable, equally precious, not only in light of the Constitution, but in the eyes of God.

Since then, over 60 million lives have been terminated through the practice of abortion in these United States. And yet even in the shadow of this darkness, we can see rays of hope shining through.

Because of places like Parkridge, I believe the tide is finally turning, and in the direction of life. All across our country, the growing momentum for a culture of life is palpable.

Last week, we learned that the abortion rate in America has dropped to its lowest level at any point since 1973 and Roe v. Wade.

We have seen States throughout the country taking bold action to defend the inherent dignity of every human life, especially those who can't speak up for themselves.

I am proud to have supported every single pro-life measure considered in this Chamber, from the Heartbeat Protection Act, to the pain-capable protections, to defunding Planned Parenthood, to the recent born-alive protection legislation.

I stand behind our President 100 percent in his efforts to reshape the courts so that judges adhere to the Constitution and to the independent and interpretive role that they are supposed to play, rather than legislating from the bench and imposing their policy preferences on the American people.

This is one of the most important and certainly lasting legacies of this President, and I am proud to say and excited to say the Senate has recently confirmed President Trump's 150th judicial nominee.

But I also recognize that in order to build a lasting culture of life, we are going to need to do more than just change laws. We are going to have to change hearts.

In the debate over abortion, the late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey said:

The real question is not when life begins, but when love begins.

For 26 years now, the people of Parkridge Pregnancy Center have been coming alongside these young mothers not in judgment, but in joy, not in condemnation, but to comfort, praying with them, loving them, and ministering to them and meeting their deepest needs in their darkest hours.

Thanks to the good and godly work that they are doing, along with countless organizations like them across America, I hope, pray, and I believe that we will soon see a day in our country when every child is loved and every life, born or unborn, is celebrated, cherished, and protected.

Madam Speaker, may God bless the Parkridge family, may He bless their mission to protect life and promote love, all to the praise of God, the author of both life and love.

Go west Texas.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining?

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I would like to say that I feel like it is incredibly irresponsible and premature and careless for this body, led by our Speaker and the Democratic Party, to rush to this conclusion and allege that our President has committed high crimes.

I don't believe this is under the auspices of pursuit of justice and truth. I think it is placating a certain group in the Democratic Party.

I think this is more of the bloodlust for impeaching our President, not because of high crimes, but because they hate him, they hate his personality, they hate his policies, but that is no justification.

We are better than that as a country. We should be more responsible in how we faithfully carry out our constitutional duties.

So I look forward to reading the transcript. I look forward to getting the facts.

Republican or Democrat, Madam Speaker, we ought to look at the facts and we ought to be very judicious and careful and certainly responsible when wielding our constitutional oversight, and certainly that provision of impeachment.

So that is what I am going to do on behalf of the good people of west Texas and my beloved countrymen across the United States.

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