March for Life

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, it is January. It is cold outside. In fact, it is snowing outside here in Washington, DC, today and tomorrow. It is late January, which means what it has meant for the last five decades: Pro-life Americans will gather by the hundreds of thousands in Washington, DC, and will converge on this city to say: We think every child is valuable.

Now, I have to tell you, every march I have been to--and I have been to a lot--they are all cold. They don't all have snow. This one will, but it won't dampen the spirits for a lot of students, leaders, moms, dads, and little ones who will come just to be able to say: We are in America, and we think life is valuable. We think children are precious. We think this is an important issue.

We haven't always had a March for Life. We had one for 50 years, actually. Interestingly enough, when Nellie Gray and some other pro- life leaders organized the March for Life starting after 1973--after the Roe v. Wade decision--they were recognizing an anomaly in American law.

Our Nation has been a nation almost 250 years, but abortion was only mandated in every State and every place just during that short time period under Roe v. Wade. For the other two centuries of our Nation, this issue about the value of life was decided in every State and among the people.

That is what has occurred again. We still have abortion in America. It is happening all over the country. But individuals are rising up and saying: Our State, our leaders, and even this Congress needs to have a conversation about when is a child a child and when does a child become valuable in our culture and when is a child disposable in our culture, and which child can be disposed of and which child is celebrated.

I love this side-by-side picture here. I don't know if you can really see it. This is an ultrasound that is actually happening in the womb, with this baby in this position with arms up over her head.

And a baby sleeps like that. In fact, both of my daughters often slept like that. We called that the ``touchdown position,'' when their hands were raised over their head. It is funny to be able to see this picture and ultrasound of this child in the womb sleeping just like the same way they would later sleep in the crib.

Do you know why? Because there is no difference between these two babies. That is a baby then, and that is a baby then. The only difference is time. The only difference between myself right now and myself 9 months ago was time--9 months of time. The only difference between this child in the womb and that child lying in a crib is just a little bit of time.

There are literally millions of Americans who have this very simple perspective. We should--as the march says this year--march with every woman, for every child, and we should stand up for those individuals and to be able to honor those families. We march in support of pregnancy resource centers, those folks who are walking with women through very difficult decisions and through very hard moments.

There was a recent study done on pregnancy resource centers in just 2022 that found that $359 million were donated to individuals through pregnancy resource centers all over the country. Those are diapers and wipes. Those are baby formulas. That is car seats. That is free ultrasounds. That is free pregnancy tests. That is after-abortion support. And, sometimes, it is strollers and clothes.

A vast majority of those individuals who work at these pregnancy resource centers are heroes, volunteers who give their time. They have full-time jobs, tasks with families and in other places, but they value every single child, even the children they don't know and love. They would donate their time and their money and their effort just to be able to say that child is just as valuable as that child; and that, in America, we shouldn't pick and choose which child is precious and which child is disposable. We should just say we all are.

This administration has been exceptionally aggressive on taking on this issue of life, pushing back from the very beginning. For instance, there is a nurse who was in the process of dealing with her employer because this nurse had informed the hospital that she worked with that she was personally opposed to abortion--morally, personally opposed to abortion. She was told: You won't have to participate in abortion. You have a conscience-right protection under U.S. law that individuals can't be compelled to have an abortion.

She worked at this hospital until one day she had a doctor and a nurse who actually compelled her to participate in an abortion or she would lose her job. She was not allowed to be able to have her conscience without losing her job.

That was in the course of litigation. In the earliest days of the Biden administration, that litigation was just dismissed, saying: We understand. It is Federal law that you should have conscience protections. But we don't agree with your opinion, and so you don't get conscience protections, only people we agree with.

That is wrong.

In my State, funding from this administration was cut off in my State for AIDS testing, for screenings, for breast cancer evaluations. That money was Federal dollars allocated to my State to help in healthcare in rural communities. That money was cut off by this administration. Do you want to know why? Because our State would not promote abortion. And the determination was made that you won't get Federal assistance for AIDS testing or for breast cancer screening or for assistance in your county health departments. We are going to cut your funds off for that if your State chooses not to promote abortion.

Our State stepped up and said: We believe every child is valuable-- both of those kids--and we will find a way to do it on our own.

In the meantime, this administration is cutting off funds for AIDS testing because they don't like people in our State, our opinion about the value of life. This administration has just proposed to cut off temporary assistance for needy families to pro-life centers. As I mentioned before, some of these pregnancy resource centers give out food, clothing, and assistance. They have been a part of the TANF Program for years and years and years.

This administration proposed to be able to cut them off to say: If you assist families but also don't promote abortion, you can't actually assist families. You are not one of us.

They are literally telling to those Americans that you don't agree with the administration. So you don't count because you are actually trying to protect life. We won't help you do that.

This administration is currently trying to use the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to force doctors to provide abortions, even though that law that they are using specifically and explicitly protects pregnant moms and unborn children. But they are currently trying to be able to twist it the other way.

This administration is currently fighting an issue on chemical abortions--chemical abortions that have been around for years. That is a two-drug cocktail where the first drug actually disconnects the child from the connection in the womb and starves them. The second pill causes that delivery. It causes the contraction of the uterus, and they have an abortion at home. It is a do-it-yourself kit for at home.

For years, that has been a very specific issue. There was only a certain specific time period that you could actually use that drug cocktail, knowing that if the child was just a few weeks older, it causes a real danger to the mom. Or if this was an ectopic pregnancy, it could actually take the life of that mom. Or if the mom has the wrong blood type, it could cause the mom not to be able to have children in the future.

In the past, a physician would have to connect with that mom before they would get this drug cocktail. This administration has continued to fight to say: No, they don't need to see a physician. They can just get it mailed to them.

And in a situation with an ectopic pregnancy, literally, the side effects from having the do-it-yourself abortion at home may look similar to the side effects of an ectopic pregnancy, but there is no way to know unless you get that ultrasound. And they will never know.

Listen, I am fully aware that this administration is aggressive about trying to provide more abortions in the country. Why would they put women's lives at risk to be able to make it more convenient to be able to have an abortion?

It is January. We are talking about this issue of abortion because the March for Life is happening. But there are literally millions of Americans all around the country who are going to continue to be able to talk about this issue of life in every way that they can because they look at these two children--literally, a few weeks apart--and they think both of them are valuable. I don't think that is a radical concept.

We live in a culture in America that is committed to tolerance, acceptance, and diversity, but it seems to be so for every area except for that child. That child doesn't get to have tolerance, acceptance, and be welcomed into a culture. That child is sometimes determined to be disposable.

I want to say to the millions of Americans who see both of these kids and who think both of them are valuable: Continue to be able to love people, to be able to walk alongside those moms, to be able to encourage in every way that you can because, as a culture, as we keep talking about this issue, more and more people will look at these two pictures and will say: You are right. They both look like children to me. Why don't we treat them equal?

That is what we should be all about as a country, and that is why we march every cold January.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source