From the Congressional Record, 1-19-11 - Page H343
Abortion is Violence against Children
Watch a video of this speech
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Dr. BROUN, thank you for your eloquence and
your kind remarks, and I want to thank you for your leadership.
Again, as a medical doctor, I think you and Dr. ROE and the other
docs bring such credibility.
I hope Americans are listening. I hope my friends on the other side
of the aisle who take the other side of this issue will begin
listening. There needs to be a reevaluation. America needs to take a
second look, a long and sustained look at the surface appeal
arguments of the abortion rights side.
Abortion is violence against children. It dismembers a child; it
decapitates a child; it chemically poisons a child. One of our
earlier speakers talked about RU486 and how tailor-made abortions
are being promoted by Planned Parenthood. RU486 actually operates in
two ways. The first chemical starves the baby to death so the child
in utero, the child in the womb simply cannot get nourishment to
continue living. The second chemical brings about the expulsion of
that baby--who is usually dead, but not always. If that isn't child
abuse, if the other methods of abortion are not child abuse, I don't
know what is.
This idea that life begins at birth belongs in another era,
especially with ultrasound technologies available, as several of my
colleagues have said, the ``window to the womb.'' As a matter of
fact, it should be noted that even the leading pro-abortion
activists in the 1960s and early 1970s, Dr. Bernard Nathanson from
New York, one of the three cofounders of NARAL, which is one of the
leading pro-abortion groups in the country, Dr. Nathanson said he
presided over 60,000 deaths to children as he ran the largest
abortion clinic in New York City. He went on to become a pro-lifer.
And what caused that huge change of heart both in his mind and in
his heart? It was that he began doing blood transfusions and began
to see that an unborn child is a patient just like any other patient
who may be sick, have a disability, that early efforts and
interventions could mitigate whatever that anomaly might be. And
because of that he said, how can I be in one room killing a baby
with poison or dismemberment while in another doctor's office or in
another operating theater providing this prenatal surgery? He saw
the schizophrenia inherent in treating some children because they're
wanted as being acceptable, and we welcome them, and if they are
unwanted, they're throwaways. The feminists had it right when they
said no woman should ever be treated as an object. Well, we all know
that the unborn child, if he or she is unwanted, is treated like an
object and a throwaway, and no human life is a throwaway.
Let me also say that Abby Johnson, who just recently, a little over
a year ago, left a Planned Parenthood directorship in Texas--what
caused her to change? She saw an ultrasound abortion in real time
and said, I just saw the baby crumple right in front of my very
eyes. If that isn't a human rights abuse, I don't know what is
either. So she became a pro-lifer and now speaks out very, very
boldly.
Finally, Dr. Alveda King, as I mentioned earlier, is Martin Luther
King's niece. Dr. King had two abortions. She was a ``pro-choicer.''
She now is one of the most eloquent pro-life leaders in the United
States and even in the world. She has said, ``How can the dream
survive''--talking about her uncle's dream of inclusion, of human
rights, of civil rights for all--``how can the dream survive,'' she
writes, ``if we murder the children?''
She goes on to talk about how the African American population in
this country is so disproportionately targeted by Planned Parenthood
and others. The number of abortions for African Americans is about
five times the rate of Caucasians and it is because of targeting.
There are other reasons, but that is one of the main reasons. That's
where the Planned Parenthood clinics are, frankly.
Abortion hurts women, she makes it so clear. She is eloquent in her
defense, as are others, in ministering to women who have had
abortions. One thing about this pro-life movement--and I've been in
it for 38 years, I've been in Congress for 31 years--it loves them
both. It says to both the mother and to the baby, we want to put our
arms around you, we want to help, we want to be of assistance. And
to any post-abortive woman, we are all about trying to help and to
assist and provide some kind of pathway to reconciliation. That's
where the post-abortive women like Dr. Alveda King play such a
crucial role in helping women who otherwise would feel so
disenfranchised and left out.
I want to thank our leadership, Speaker Boehner, our majority
leader, Eric Cantor. We have a very pro-life leadership who
recognizes how sacred life is, how this Congress, this House needs
to defend the defenseless. Tomorrow, I will be joining the
distinguished Speaker as he speaks on the No Taxpayer Funding for
Abortion Act. We will be having a press conference tomorrow. We have
over 125 cosponsors. I have never seen a leadership so dedicated to
protecting innocent human life as these individuals in our
leadership. I would hope my friends on the other side of the aisle
would take a second long look at the carnage, the unbelievable pain
and agony and suffering that abortion has visited upon women. It is
not pro-women. Abortion exploits women. And it's certainly not
pro-child either because it decimates unborn children as well.
So we have a great leadership. We have an excellent group of
Members, men and women, Democrats and Republicans. And I do hope
that we will move this human rights issue forward. The young people
are with us, and this is the greatest human rights struggle ever.
Back
