Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. LEE. Madam President, I rise today to support and to request the Senate's approval of this resolution, which would designate the second week of November as National Pregnancy Center Week in honor of the lifesaving and life-affirming work of America's community-supported pregnancy centers.
I am asking for my colleague's unanimous consent because there is absolutely nothing contentious about this resolution, S. Res. 312, nor is there anything contentious about the pregnancy resource centers commemorated by this resolution.
There are approximately 2,500 pregnancy resource centers in America. Every single day they serve an average of 65,000 women and men faced with challenging pregnancy decisions, providing them with a wide array of resources. That includes, at many centers, health care services such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and testing for STDs and STIs. It includes emotional and educational support such as options counseling and parenting classes. It includes material and logistical assistance to help new moms and dads deal with all the little things that easily add up to big obstacles in the first few weeks and months of parenthood.
America's pregnancy resource centers aren't out to make a profit nor are they out there to push a particular political agenda. They are just there to help and to do so in a way that is compassionate, considerate of individual privacy, and respectful of the equal dignity of all human life.
Any way you look at it, America's pregnancy resource centers deserve our recognition and they deserve our respect and our gratitude. The real measure of their significance isn't in the words of a floor speech in the Senate or the outcome of a vote, it is in the thousands of lives they help save from the pain of abortion every year and in the millions of teachers, soldiers, nurses, neighbors, friends, and spouses whose lives and contributions to our communities we might never have known had it not been for the unassuming heroes down at the local pregnancy center who give their time to keep the lights on, answer the phones, and help young women find the hope and the courage to choose life.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 312, submitted earlier today; that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
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Mr. LEE. Madam President, reserving the right to object, there is nothing divisive about this resolution I have offered today, nothing divisive whatsoever.
This simply seeks recognition of the great work that is performed by the men and women who staff these pregnancy centers. There is nothing about it that is a political football, nothing about it that is designed to drive a wedge.
Unlike our resolution, the resolution I submitted today, S. Res. 312, which mainly commends community volunteers around the country for helping young mothers and their children--hardly divisive--the Senator's counterproposal is divisive and controversial. My cosponsors and I only wanted to recognize the life-affirming and lifesaving work, the kind of work that brings families and communities together the counterproposal would only pull Americans further apart and further away from the more humane and compassionate society that all Americans deserve.
If calling for recognition of these brave and noble men and women who serve people at pregnancy centers around the country is divisive, we have significant problems, but the fact is, it is not. I would encourage anyone within the sound of my voice to read S. Res. 312, and they will discover it is not the least bit divisive and doesn't discuss anything that is the least bit controversial.
On that basis, I can't agree with the modification, and I object.
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