Providing For Consideration of H.R. 1735, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016; Providing For Consideration of H.R. 36, Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; Providing For Consideration of H.R. 2048, USA Freedom Act of 2015; and Providing For Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentlewoman.

Madam Speaker, this is a very commonsense bill, H.R. 36, which is being presented by my colleague Mr. Franks from Arizona.

Why do we have to do this? I am going to tell you something.

It is because scientific evidence now shows that unborn babies can feel pain by 20 weeks postfertilization and, likely, even earlier. It is because a late-term abortion is an excruciatingly painful and inhumane act against children who are waiting to be born and against their mothers. It is because women who terminate pregnancies at 20 weeks are 35 times more likely to die from abortion than they are in the first trimester, and they are 91 times more likely to die from abortion at 21 weeks or beyond. It is because, after 5 months into a pregnancy, the baby is undeniably a living, growing human, and the government's first duty is to protect innocent life. It is because, overwhelmingly, most Americans--and I am talking about men and women, young and old--support legislation to protect these innocent people. It is because the hideous case of Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia is a brutal reminder of what can occur without this type of legislation in place.

H.R. 36 would federally ban almost all abortions from being performed beyond the 20th week of pregnancy with exceptions for instances of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake.

I want to tell my colleagues to just think of how little effort it would be today to take their voting cards out, to put them in the machine, and to press on the green button. By doing that, they are saying ``yes'' to protecting the most vulnerable people in our society from going through unbelievable amounts of pain.

Isn't it amazing that, in America's House, we have to pass legislation to protect the most innocent life? This is incredible that we have to even come forward and debate this. My goodness. This is just so intuitive of who we are, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as human beings. We have to protect the unborn because they cannot protect themselves. Vote ``yes'' on this today. Let's make sure that our children are not subjected to this pain and that their mothers are not subjected to the same pain and to the resulting loss of life.

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