Sanctity of Human Life Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana, Jim Banks, as our first speaker tonight, a former State senator in Indiana. He served since 2010, a new Member of the House. He served as chairman of the senate Veterans Affairs and The Military Committee with great distinction, and now he has actually joined the Veterans' Affairs Committee as well as other committees here in the House.

I thank my good friend for his remarks.

I now yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), the chairwoman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, who has been outspoken for years on behalf of the innocent and inconvenient unborn children.

I want to thank the distinguished chairwoman of the Education and the Workforce Committee for her kind remarks and again thank her for her leadership for so many years.

I now yield to the gentleman from Arizona, Congressman Andy Biggs. While a new Member of the House, he is a very experienced lawmaker, having served 14 years in the Arizona Legislature.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for his leadership in the legislature before. As the gentleman so aptly pointed out, the numbers of abortion come down when even modest restrictions are passed. The law is a great teacher. We are so happy to have the gentleman from Arizona here in

the House, and I know I speak for many of us on the Pro-Life Caucus.

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for his eloquence, for his commitment, his passion, and for that steadfastness that will one day yield the result when the unborn are protected in our laws against the violence of abortion. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for participating, but most importantly for his years of service on behalf of his constituents and the unborn.

I now yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King).

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Iowa's leadership, which has been over many decades. I want to thank him for his eloquence and his steadfastness. The day will come when the unborn are protected, and he will be a major part of that.

I would also concur with the gentleman from Iowa fully in how much we miss the great Henry Hyde. He was extraordinary. He was irreplaceable. And the fact that his amendment has saved 2 million lives, at least-- some estimates put it even higher--is a testimony to his vision, which we now carry on with.

I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert). I again thank him for his outspokenness on behalf of the weakest and most vulnerable.

I thank the gentleman for his very passionate and incisive remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure, the Agriculture, and the Natural Resources Committees. I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

I thank the gentleman so very much for his kind remarks, but also his very eloquent concern for post-abortive women and those who may be contemplating abortion. You know, the Pregnancy Care Network, 4,000 strong throughout the United States, is there as a front line to say: We love you both, mother and baby.

So I thank the gentleman for bringing attention to that as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Jody B. Hice), a member of the Oversight and Government Reform, and the Natural Resources Committees.

Thank you very much for your eloquence and reminding us all that the Supreme Court itself said that we need not resolve the difficult question of when human life begins; then they went on to say that any child, at any point until birth, could be killed by way of an abortion. They resolved it, but they

resolved it in the negative without science, without the information. Ultrasound certainly has shattered that myth, and I thank you for reminding all of us about that.

I also would remind my colleagues that Jean Garton--a great leader-- ran Lutherans for Life for years. She was preparing a presentation on abortion that included some actual pictures of aborted babies. It was late at night, but her young child walked in while she was doing this and said: Mommy, who broke the baby?

So even a small child could recognize--and did recognize--that abortion destroys the life of a baby. Sadly, the Court has not been able to. With all of their much-vaunted intelligence capacity, they missed it by a mile. So thank you for reminding us of that.

Mr. Speaker, how much time remains.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, ex-President Barack Obama, the abortion President, has done serious harm. No human rights abuse, however, need be forever. Today, we have an extraordinary opportunity. We have, I would submit, a duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable and to reassert protections that have been sadly lacking for the last 44 years. Protecting unborn children and their mothers is the most important human rights cause on Earth. And this week, on Friday, thousands are expected to march for life, to march for this fundamental human right-- the right to live.

Now, as never before, we must work, pray, and fast for that day when every life is cherished as a gift; every life loved, despite one's disability, race, sex, color, religion, or condition of dependency; and every life welcomed, no matter the inconvenience. Earlier in this Special Order, Steve King talked about caring for people at every stage of development--every stage--including the unborn. Birth is an event that happens to each and every one of us. It is not the beginning of life.

Again, ultrasound imaging of the unborn child has just opened up everyone's eyes to the little child--twins if there are two--that resides within.

He also talked about, and I would agree with him, children with disabilities need to be welcomed. A prenatal diagnosis of disability should mean empathy and concern for the child, not exclusion or a death sentence, because every life is a gift.

Mr. Speaker, it is very encouraging as to how many young people are stepping up to protect and lead in this human rights cause. Increasingly, the young people on college campuses, Students for Life, and so many young people in their 20s, the millennials--and the polling shows the millennials are pro-life--are stepping up.

Tom Brokaw often talked about the Greatest Generation. They are stepping up as the next Greatest Generation who by their compassion, faith, and determination will transform America into a culture of life.

All of us in the pro-life movement are especially thankful for the growing number of courageous women who are silent no more. Some of the groups are called the Silent No More Awareness campaign. For example, women, all of whom have had abortions, have suffered psychological and emotional harm, and yet they, thank God, have found reconciliation and peace, often through faith. But now they blaze a hope-filled path for other post-abortive women to find healing, reconciliation, and inner peace. They admonish society not to offer the false solution of killing an unborn child.

There are two victims in every abortion: the baby, the most obvious, but equally the mother. Women deserve better than the false solution of dismembering or chemically poisoning unborn children. The other side of the issue seldom talks about the child, if ever, don't even use the word abortion much anymore, just choice or reproductive rights, and just refuses to accept or to acknowledge or to debate what the deed actually does.

Children have their arms and legs torn off their bodies by the abortionist as well as decapitation. Chemicals literally starve the child to death. RU-486 is euphemistically called medical abortion like the other pills that are provided. First, the child starves in the womb, and then another chemical brings on labor.

For the pro-life movement, we all acknowledge that the way forward is fraught with obstacles that must be overcome. The promotion of human rights is never easy. The promotion of human rights is never obstacle free. If past is prologue, the history of the pro-life movement, however, shows that we will never quit.

Earlier today, the House voted on the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, H.R. 7, to end taxpayer complicity and funding of abortion. I especially want to thank our very principled leadership, great people like the Speaker, Paul Ryan; Kevin McCarthy, our majority leader; Steve Scalise, our whip; and Cathy McMorris Rodgers; and so many others who take a principled stand for the unborn and equally for their mothers.

No matter what The Washington Post or The New York Times might say, they are willing to stand into the wind rather than to go along with it because the sanctity of life--the preciousness of those children and equally of their mothers--demands it. I want to thank them for their extraordinary leadership. As we all know, the bill passed 238-183.

The extraordinary news is about the Hyde amendment and its consequences. It has saved the lives of over 2 million children, and that is a conservative estimate. There may be many more. Other funding bans at State levels, as well as our funding bans in our Federal policies, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, have also saved lives because the money was not there to facilitate the demise--the violent demise--of those children.

Even the Guttmacher Institute, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, acknowledges that about 25 percent of the Medicaid abortions that otherwise would have occurred do not occur. Those children go on to be born, and that is where the 2 million figure, about 60,000 per year--children who evade the scalpel or the chemical poisoning of abortion.

Forty years ago, Congress enacted the Hyde amendment. It has been continued every year, and now it will be made permanent if this bill were to become law. We know, as was said during the debate by my friends on the other side of this issue, that they are determined to eviscerate the Hyde amendment, and those 2 million children, had they had their way over the last 40 years, would have been killed.

We also want to take abortion out of ObamaCare. The President stood right at that podium, Mr. Speaker, in September of 2009, and said: ``Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions. . . . ''

We know that is absolutely untrue. He also signed an executive order where he said that the Hyde amendment would be applied to the plans in the exchanges. So we went to the Government Accountability Office and asked for a study. It took about a year, and they came back and said that 1,036 insurance plans across the country paid for abortion on demand with taxpayer funding. H.R. 7, title II, would end that complicity of the taxpayer with the procurement of abortion.

Let me also say that we hope to bring up in this House a bill that was sponsored last Congress and is again today by Trent Franks of Arizona, a great champion of life. It is called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to legally protect most babies at 20 weeks postfertilization. Of course, many of those kids die of dismemberment. Again, we need a national debate on abortion because the methods have been hidden by the facade of the abortion industry. They have been very good at cloaking, concealing, and diminishing any focus on what happens to the baby. Even when abortion is through ultrasound-guided abortions and the mother is there, semi-sedated, they turn the screen away from her so she doesn't see the dismemberment of the child, because, obviously, as Dr. Nathanson, the founder of NARAL and an abortionist, once said--he came to the conclusion after having killed 60,000 children and then became a pro-lifer--he said that if wombs had windows, if everyone, including the woman, could see the child, she would run out of that abortion mill.

So, again, I want to say thank you to Trent Franks. I know he is here, and

I hope that he will join us tonight. He has led on born-alive legislation, which is also transformative.

Imagine that the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, said that he would veto a bill that would provide a standard of care, including a right to private action, when the child is born alive from a later term abortion. We can't even help that child? Yet Obama, the abortion President, said: No, we can't. Trent Franks, again, has been the leader on that as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus) who is a good friend and colleague, and then to close, Congressman Trent Franks.

I thank the gentleman so much for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful that Representative Chris Smith is a Member of the United States Congress because of his leadership, because of his enormous heart, and his enormous caring.

It is amazing--those of us who believe in God--the way our lives develop. I was a guy that grew up; I never liked to hug anybody. But when we had three beautiful incredible girls added to my wife's and my life, I became a hugger. Fox has a show named ``Outnumbered,'' but that has been my life for years now.

I know there are so many people that say you are a man and you have no right to speak about this. I guess, when I was a judge, there were those who thought, since I was not a person that had been on both sides of a civil lawsuit or had been a defendant in a case, maybe I should not be able to say anything about or pass sentence. But we have laws, and laws are there to protect people.

I do believe, as our Founders did, in nature's God, that we have a Creator who provided us inalienable rights. But in this world, you have to fight for any inheritance, including your inalienable rights.

It does appear that nature gave a greater percentage of women a nurturing greater sense of loving and caring than most men. That gets changed for some of us when you have a house full of girls.

But I could identify with the doctor who had performed, I think he said, over 1,000 abortions, who came before our Judiciary Committee and testified about how it was just a procedure, how it was nothing to him, and how he would go into the uterus.

Of course, the pregnant mom was not dilated and not going to be able to deliver a baby that had begun forming, had a heartbeat. But that is why he would go in with his instrument, feel around with his clamps for something that felt long, and when he found it, he knew that it was either a leg or an arm, and he would grab it and pull it out from the baby's body, and continue till he did that four times, and then reach in and find something that felt bulbous, and he would--he knew the head could not come out in a bulbous form, and so he would crush it and pull out the baby's head. And that was the way he went about beginning the abortion of a child that had begun developing like that.

He never thought a thing about it until his daughter died, and then he became nauseated, and he was never able to do another abortion like that, and it became such a burden that he had done what he had done.

I know from my years on the bench as a judge, I know from my years as an attorney helping people, if something is built on a lie, the chances are that the outcome will not be good for a majority of people. I also know that if someone encourages and perpetuates a lie within some other person's life, they are not that person's friend.

So I would like to quickly reference an article published by WND called ``The Real `Jane Roe' '' and just hit some of the highlights about the real Jane Roe, the woman.

I was talking with my friend, Chris Smith, about Norma McCorvey. He is quite familiar with her, and I believe he said he had talked to her and had come to know her. Being the Christian that Chris Smith is, he cares deeply about people, and that included Norma McCorvey.

But this article says: ``At the age of 21, McCorvey was pregnant with her third child. She had given her other two children up for adoption and McCorvey did not want to say good-bye to her offspring a third time. So she decided to have an illegal abortion, but the Dallas clinic she went to had been recently raided and shut down. So McCorvey made up a story--she had been raped, she told her doctor and two lawyers. She signed an affidavit on condition of anonymity, and the lawsuit began.''

And she told WorldNetDaily: `` `I considered abortion and, because of this, I was put in touch with two attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. They had just recently graduated from law school and were interested in challenging the Texas abortion statute.' ''

She says: `` `Plain and simple, I was used.' '' This is Norma McCorvey. `` `I was a nobody to them. They only needed a pregnant woman to use for their case, and that's it. They cared, not about me, but only about legalizing abortion. Even after the case, I was never respected--probably because I was not an ivy-league educated, liberal feminist like they were.' ''

But she goes on and says--well, this was from a New York Times interview: ``McCorvey describes her meeting the two young attorneys. . . .

`` `Sarah Weddington sat right across the table from me at Columbo's pizza parlor, and I didn't know then that she had had an abortion herself. When I told her then how desperately I needed one, she could have told me where to go for it. But she wouldn't because she needed me to be pregnant for her case. I set Sarah Weddington up on a pedestal like a rose petal. But when it came to my turn, well, Sarah saw these cuts on my wrists, my swollen eyes from crying, the miserable person sitting across from her, and she knew she had a patsy. She knew I wouldn't go outside of the realm of her and Linda. I was too scared. It was one of the most hideous times of my life.' ''

She says: `` `My experience with pro-abortion leaders is that they are snobs. They claim they care about women and their rights but, in my experience, they care for nothing, not even themselves in a way,' '' McCorvey said.

``McCorvey said in a 1990 New York Times interview that the rape lie caused her to be `terribly depressed.' ''

`` `I was brought up not to lie and, because of this story, I had to lie all the time. And the depression periods got deeper and longer until the night I cut my wrists.' ''

Well, it is one of the difficulties that attorneys have: when you represent someone and you are sworn to do the best job you can, it should be more than simply about getting the legal result that a lawyer wants. It ought to be about helping the client. You can't always do that.

But it is rather tragic that Jane Roe, Norma McCorvey, now looks back on that as the most hideous time of her life, and that she was taken advantage of by people that didn't care about her. They had an agenda.

I heard someone here on the floor talking about the Women's March and how that was for all women, except the hypocrisy of that march was it was not about all women because there were pro-life women that tried to march. It was about women that think exactly like they do, and nobody else gets to participate.

It is the same kind of mentality that would--when in the majority here in this body say: We want everybody to participate in debate, except we are

going to have a record-setting number of closed rules so nobody can debate. We don't want your input on ObamaCare. We don't care that you support what we do on preexisting conditions and on kids living with their parents.

Heck, some of us said 30 would be a better number than 26. They didn't care. They could pass it without our votes. They didn't want our input.

So then to hear people who treated us like that say we care about open debate, knowing that some of those same people came down here and grabbed microphones and, for the first time we can find in congressional hearing, prevented the majority from starting into session; and then they want to lecture us on openness and kindness and open debate? Really?

Let's go back to the Norma McCorveys of the world. Let's minister to them individually, as my church, as a number of ministries with which I am greatly familiar do. Let's help the real person. Let's help that child so that that little boy or that little girl doesn't have its arms and legs jerked out of the uterus. Let's help that child have a life that will be so full they will never think about slitting their wrists, as Norma McCorvey did. Let's vote for life.

Mr. Speaker, I came to this building some 30 years ago. Christopher Smith was here fighting the battle for these little babies, as he is tonight. I hold him to be a grand hero of humanity. Words fail me to express to him the honor, the respect, and the affection that is due him for his relentless, faithful commitment to these little babies that could never vote for him.

All I can say to Mr. Smith is that one day he will step over the threshold of eternity and God will say: Welcome home, Chris. You did a good job. You protected those who couldn't protect themselves.

I can't think of anything that I think points to a greater manhood, a greater honor, a greater stewardship of life than protecting those who cannot protect themselves. I just want to express that in the deepest way possible.

Certainly, Keith Rothfus, I love him. He is a wonderful man. We have so many here. But Chris has been here forever and he has stayed with it. He is getting to be an old guy, but he is not quitting. I am so honored just to be in the same room with him.

Mr. Speaker, as I often do around the 22nd of January to commemorate and to remember the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, I come with a sunset memorial because another legislative day has come and gone in Washington, D.C., and sunset approaches fast. So I stand here in this House with what I call a sunset memorial.

You see, Mr. Speaker, before the sun sets today in America, over 3,000 more unborn children will be killed by abortion on demand in the land of the free and the home of the brave. That is more than the number of innocent lives lost on September 11th in this country. It happens every day.

As much hope as there is in the day in which we stand in this place, in this new moment in American history, for these 3,000, hope will never come in time. I mourn that, Mr. Speaker, because it wasn't necessary.

It has now been 44 years since the tragedy called Roe v. Wade was first handed down. Since then, the very foundation of this Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 60 million of our own unborn children. So many of them, Mr. Speaker, cried and screamed as they died, but because it was amniotic fluid going over the vocal cords instead of air, we couldn't hear them.

All of them had at least four things in common, Mr. Speaker. First, they were just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone. Each one of them died a nameless and lonely death and each one of their mothers was wounded. Whether she realizes it or not, she will never quite be the same.

All the gifts that these children might have brought to humanity are now lost forever, Mr. Speaker, and that is worth mourning. Yet, even the glare of such tragedy brings a ray of hope because this generation, even though it still clings sometimes to a blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself over and over again, there is, again, a new beacon of hope breaking over the horizon.

Mr. Speaker, not so long ago I heard Barack Obama speak some very noble but poignant words that, whether he realizes it or not, applies so profoundly to this subject. So I am going to quote some excerpted portions of his comments.

Let me just say at the outset that I agreed with the words that he spoke. I am going to say that upfront. No one was a greater critic of the policies of Barack Obama than myself because I thought he missed the moment. I thought he missed his moment in history. He could have been a great and powerful friend to the helpless, yet he chose to be the one to oppose their chance to walk in the light of life.

He said: ``This is our first task--caring for our children. It's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right. That's how, as a society, we will be judged.''

I agree, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Obama asked: ``Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence that is visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of freedom?''

The President also said: ``Our journey is not complete until all our children . . .'' are ``cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.''

``That is our generation's task,'' he said, ``to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American.''

Mr. Speaker, never have I so deeply agreed with any words ever spoken by President Barack Obama as those I have just quoted. Yet, when he was President, in the most merciless distortion of logic and reason and humanity itself, he refused to apply his incontrovertible words to the helpless unborn babies in this Nation.

How I wish, Mr. Speaker, that Mr. Obama could have somehow opened his heart and his ears to his own words and asked himself in the core of his own soul why his words that should apply to all children could not have included the most helpless and vulnerable of all children. Nine million American unborn children died under the policies that Mr. Obama relentlessly supported.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that moment when President Barack Obama could have heard and responded to the silent

cries of these little forgotten souls has passed forever. Mr. Obama takes his place as the undisputed abortion President.

While I mourn that reality, Mr. Speaker, I take great hope in a new reality that Donald Trump is now President of the United States and that the winds of change are beginning to blow. I believe Mr. Trump will be a protector of these little babies that have waited so very long for someone to come along and help them.

So now I pray that the Members of this body and those in the United States Senate will remember the words of Thomas Jefferson when he said: ``The care of human life and its happiness, and not its destruction, is the chief and only object of good government.''

That phrase in the 14th Amendment that capsulizes our entire Constitution says: ``No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.''

Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of all Americans and their constitutional rights is why we are all here.

Mr. Speaker, there is hope now. We wait for that new day that has come to manifest and the sun to break through the clouds and shine once again on the faces of these little babies.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the privilege to address you and the privilege to address the House here, and I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for recognizing me to say a few words here.

This week, when we go down to the Mall to March for Life, we will see the tens of thousands of faces, many of them young people, especially young ladies that are there to stand up and defend life.

I hear the debate here on the floor of the House of Representatives, and I have listened to the gentleman who spoke on the Democrat side of this aisle who lamented that there would be 18 million people pushed off of their healthcare if we repeal the Affordable Care Act. If you want to use the technical term, it is named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and it is not the right name for it.

It won't be 18 million. It won't be half of that. But to listen to the lament that some people might go without--not health care, that is another misnomer--health insurance for a little while, that is their concern?

Well, we are here talking about more than 58 million little babies-- little babies that are created in God's image and formed in the womb, as we heard Tim Walberg speak a little earlier. They are the love of our lives. I have never known anyone who had a baby in their arms and felt that little baby--that little baby is forming, that little baby cooing, that special little baby smell, to witness the miracle of that little baby, I have never known a mother or a father that said: I wish this child had never been born. But that is what has happened to more than 58 million little miracles.

We are here; we are a moral standard. People say you can't legislate morality. Well, a reflection of morality is in the Federal code, and it is in the State laws all across this land.

The question that doesn't seem to be answered generally by people on the other side of the aisle--and I am grateful for the pro-life Democrats that we have who have joined us year after year.

I would pose the question to those who oppose the pro-life movement: Do you believe that human life is sacred in all of its forms? Is there anybody over there that would deny that, that human life is sacred in all of its forms? Not one of you. Not one of you will stand up and wave your arm and say: let me yield to you and say why that is not true.

It is true. We know. Human life is sacred in all of its forms. Once we understand that--now, you can stipulate that. You have by your silence--that human life is sacred in all of its forms, there is only one other question: Since we have to protect human life in all of its forms then at what moment does life begin? At what moment, ladies and gentlemen?

Well, we know that we can only identify a single moment. As much as we know about biology--and we know plenty--one single moment is the moment of conception. From that moment, it is a unique life with the chromosomes matched up and the DNA that will never change for a lifetime, that unique individual.

Did you ever think that God's creation of us--there are over 7 billion human beings on the planet. Each one of us is created in his image, each one of us is unique. Think of 7 billion faces and no two of them are alike. Every face on the planet is distinct and unique, and it matches up with none of the faces that are in the grave today. And nobody's face matches up with any of the faces that will be born in future years or millennia.

Each face of God's creation is unique. What is the best way we can tell each other apart? Look at the visage of our faces. It is a uniqueness that God created within us that is part of how we interact with each other. It is how we should love each other and appreciate each other and draw those distinctions so that we can respect everyone as having their own unique life.

So you have stipulated that human life is sacred in all of its forms. So the next question I have to ask you is: Well, at what moment does life begin? What moment, what instant does life begin?

If you can pose another instant, another moment, other than conception, I would listen to that. But I am not seeing anybody who wants to step down and say that there is a distinct moment that life begins, other than conception.

So I will make this case again: human life is sacred in all of its forms; you stipulated that. The second is that it begins at the moment of conception. Your silence has stipulated that.

So we have the whole argument wrapped up here, packaged in this today. We need to defend human life in all of its forms. It is God's gift to his creation. It is our obligation to defend it, and we can defend it. We can defend it through legislation as we did today.

We should honor and respect the life of Henry Hyde, who contributed a great deal to this Congress in his lifetime. We are working on the foundation that he has laid down for us, and Representative Chris Smith has assumed much of the role that Henry Hyde played here in this Congress. We each had the privilege to serve with Henry Hyde. His legacy remains, and we have the unique privilege and opportunity to build on it. I suggest we continue to do so in every piece of legislation that we can pass.

We anticipate appointments to the Supreme Court that will honor life and

recognize, also, as our Founding Fathers did when they drafted the Declaration of Independence, that we have a right to life, to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Don't try to package that up as three equal values. They are not. They are prioritized rights. The right to life supercedes the right to liberty, and the right to liberty supersedes the right to the pursuit of happiness. No one in the pursuit of their happiness can trample on someone's liberties. And no one can claim they have the liberty to take the life of a baby because life is paramount. That is the package. That is the argument that is here. We need young people to grow up with that understanding and those values.

As we stand here tonight, Mr. Speaker, and as we work together in the coming days and months--and I pray it is not years--one day we will see this Nation that respects life from the moment of conception until natural death.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), my colleague, for his continued leadership on this very important topic, a moral one, I think, that reflects truly an important part of the fiber of our country.

Which way are we going to go on this? What are our values going to be?

The gentleman has been a consistent leader way before my time during Congress as well.

As we reflect on this week, landmark legislation again passed tonight, H.R. 7, that would prohibit funding for abortion in this country, on the heels of the Mexico City solution that President Trump just signed today as well.

We are seeing that hearts are turning in this country on this issue. And when you look at it in the categories of people across the country, about half and half, rough numbers. Half the country might label itself pro-life, and the other half that favors Roe v. Wade being the law of the land, that might label themselves as pro-choice or pro-abortion.

When we get down to H.R. 7, we find that the half that is pro-life can be joined by many additional people on the other side of that argument that don't think it is appropriate to have government funding, their taxpayer dollars, used for abortion as a birth control tool in a lot of cases.

So this shows that we do have the tide going in this direction on that, as people become more and more informed on this and understand and don't listen to the rhetoric and don't listen to misinformation on what this really is. This is a baby you are talking about. It doesn't form into something else. Each pregnancy will result in a human baby.

So when we fight this battle, we find it is those that would speak on this side of the issue come under a lot of persecution. Many, many people will be joining together in this town later this week in the March for Life. You will be persecuted to some extent or another. You will be called things. But, you know, we know from the Bible that those that speak the truth are often persecuted as well, and we all need to be strong and firm in that.

God is watching what we do here. God will be watching later this week and at all times on those that are marching for life. So be strong.

Also, put your arms around those folks that might be strongly opposed, because there are a lot of people hurting on that. We understand. People that have had to make a difficult abortion choice and chosen to do so, they need healing as well. They need understanding and compassion on that. If we can show them that, and if we can show that those that are contemplating abortion, there are alternatives out there. There are many alternatives. If we can just come alongside them and show them that there is more than one way to do this, and there are people willing to help and willing to counsel you in that, because that is really what it comes down to.

When you talk about a choice, show that woman in crisis, in that situation that she has many choices, informed choices to make; and, by and large, maybe she will make the right one. In a lot of cases I believe she will.

So God bless those that are going to come for this march later this week and stand for this, put up with the level of persecution that comes with any of these types of issues, including the one on being pro-life.

Again, God bless you, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, for being a consistent leader on this.