The Pro-Life Movement is Alive and Well

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, since 1973, at least 58 million unborn children have been killed by abortion, a staggering loss of children's precious lives, a death toll that equates with the entire population of England.

Despite this staggering loss of children's lives and the sad fact that President Obama is using stealth, deception, and coercive power of the State to promote abortion violence, including the massive public funding of abortion on demand in ObamaCare, the pro-life movement is alive and well and making serious, significant, and sustained progress.

Yesterday Congress passed landmark legislation to end taxpayer subsidies for Planned Parenthood, and special thanks go to Speaker Ryan, Majority Leader McCarthy, Chairman Price, and others in leadership for crafting this lifesaving legislation.

In this Congress alone, powerful pro-life measures have passed, including the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

On the State level, 282 pro-life laws have been enacted since 2010, including laws to stop dismemberment abortions, require a 72-hour waiting period, and to provide informed consent.

With the March for Life only a couple days away, pro-lifers are more determined, faith-filled, and hope-filled than ever.

Millennials are overwhelmingly pro-life. As the former head of the pro-abortion group NARAL observed, after witnessing a recent pro-life march, the March for Life, she said: I just thought, my gosh, they are so young. There are so many of them, and they are so young.

Public opinion polls concur that more Americans, especially women and young people, are pro-life. Seventy-one percent of the millennials opposed taxpayer funding for abortion, 69 percent of the women. Fifty- nine percent of women favor a limit on abortion at at least 20 weeks when the unborn child is capable of feeling pain. The Gallup Poll has found that Planned Parenthood's favorability rating among women has dropped 24 points in the last two decades alone.

A few minutes ago, Mr. Speaker, Speaker Paul Ryan enrolled H.R. 3762, sponsored by Dr. Price, a bill to roll back much of ObamaCare and to defund Planned Parenthood. Yes, the President, President Obama, the abortion President, is all but certain to veto that bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and I just have to say, Mr. Speaker, How sad is that? The President has everything, but, sadly, there is no room, no empathy for the babies who will be exterminated. That is tragic. Hopefully he will have a change of heart at some point in his career, and hopefully it will be within weeks.

I now yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves).

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for his very eloquent comments.

I would like to now yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), the chair of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank Chairman Shuster for those excellent comments.

I now yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Jody B. Hice).

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentleman for his leadership and for his bill.

I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), the co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. I thank him for his leadership and for standing up so courageously for life.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank Mr. Lipinski for those very fine comments.

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

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank Mr. Walberg for his very excellent remarks, but also for that very personal story. That is very, very touching.

I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this most important human rights issue of our time.

I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Rouzer).

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentleman for his comments.

I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), a very strong and outspoken supporter of the right to life.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank Mr. Kelly for his very strong statement.

More people now recognize, especially through ultrasound, that birth is an event, not the beginning of life. Increasingly, because the methods of abortion are so horrific--literal dismemberment of the baby, chemical poisoning--people are waking up. Abortion is violence against children and injurious to women.

Again, I thank the gentleman for his commitment to life.

I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank Mr. Rothfus very much for his leadership and for his very eloquent remarks.

William Wilberforce reminds us all that, through prayer, fasting, tenacity, and the pursuit of justice, he really was able to stop the slave trade.

Thankfully, in this Congress, we have so many leaders--men and women on the pro-life side--who stand up boldly and effectively, and we will win this.

I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson), my good friend and colleague.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you so very much, Pete, for those very moving remarks.

I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Fleming), who is the prime sponsor of the Health Care Conscience Rights Act, along with Diane Black and Jeff Fortenberry.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you, Dr. Fleming. Thank you for your leadership on so many issues, including the conscience rights issue.
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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you so much, Mr. Young, and thank you, as a new and very rising star leader in our efforts to defend life. Your eloquence is greatly appreciated.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentleman from Texas for, again, a very eloquent statement, and my hope is that people are listening.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

And I want to thank Mr. Flores again for another very moving speech on behalf of the most basic human right, the right to life.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), my friend and colleague.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Doug, thank you very much for your excellent remarks reminding us that Planned Parenthood alone is directly responsible for killing 7 million unborn babies. That is a staggering loss of lives killed by one organization. So thank you for your leadership.

Sean offered legislation late last year that would have protected States that decided to defund Planned Parenthood. It passed overwhelmingly, and I want to thank him for his leadership as well.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Martin Luther King's niece Alveda King has had two abortions. She made one of the most passionate comments and speeches I have ever heard when she said: How can my uncle's dream survive if we murder the children? She is now pro-life. She says: The other co-victim in every abortion besides the baby is the mom. And she is a victim herself.

I yield to the gentleman from Illinois, Peter Roskam, a great leader on pro-life, first in the legislature in Illinois, and now here in Washington.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you very much, Peter. Those were outstanding comments about right to life and history as well, and we will prevail over time. So I want to thank you.

I would like to now yield to the gentleman from Georgia, Austin Scott.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you so much for those comments. I couldn't agree more that the megatrend in society is to embrace the unborn. It is the ultrasound technology--the window to the womb--that has made the difference. So thank you for your outstanding comments.

I would like to now yield to the gentleman from Ohio, Steve Chabot, the prime sponsor of the partial-birth abortion ban. It is one of the most hideous methods of abortion and has awakened many Americans to the violence that is inherent in every abortion. Steve Chabot is the man who wrote that law.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you very much, Chairman Chabot.

Chairman Chabot also is the full committee chairman of the Small Business Committee and has done yeoman's work on behalf of the unborn since he has been here, which is for a very long time.

I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my friend for his eloquent remarks.

I just want to conclude, Mr. Speaker.

Some day future generations will look back on America and wonder how and why such a seemingly enlightened society so blessed and endowed with education, advanced science, information, wealth, and opportunity could have failed to protect the most innocent and the most inconvenient.

History will not look favorably on today's abortion culture. I do believe we must replace it and work tirelessly to replace it with a culture of life.

Modern medicine and scientific breakthroughs, especially the widespread use of ultrasound, has shattered the pernicious myth that unborn children are mere blobs of tissue and that abortion is anything but an act of violence.

A few years ago I met with Linda Shrewsbury, an academic and African American with a degree from Harvard, who spoke and said:

``The lies that brought me to that day and its sorrowful aftermath are crystal clear in my mind--falsehoods and deceptions that concealed the truth about abortion. Lies planted in my thinking by clever marketing, media campaigns and endless repetition led to a tragic irreversible decision--the death of my first child.''

``At age 20, I had no inkling of the mental and emotional darkness I was about to enter.''

``After spending many years in denial, I did eventually find healing. When I understood and rejected distortions about fetal development, doublespeak about choice, rights, planned and wanted children, I understood the reality and victimhood of my aborted child. I understood the absence of moral bases for choosing to 'dis-entitle' an innocent human being of life. When I embraced truth, truth set me free and I finally gained inner peace.''

We believe that there are two victims in every abortion: the unborn baby and the mother. Linda Shrewsbury found peace. We need to protect women from the violence of abortion, as well as babies.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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