Disapproving the President's Proposal to Take An Action Relating to the Application of Certain Sanctions with Respect to the Russian

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, this coming Friday, tens of thousands of Americans will take to the snowy streets of Washington, DC, to exercise their fundamental rights on behalf of millions of others who cannot. They will come from every State in the Union, including the State of Utah, to march to the U.S. Supreme Court. Fittingly, they will be marching down Constitution Avenue in the name of justice and in defense of the innocent.

The March for Life is a spectacular tradition in American politics, a mass demonstration of joy. Despite its size and the diversity of its participants--sometimes north of 100,000 souls, born and unborn--the march is typically ignored by the mainstream media.

The marchers also know that the Supreme Court, rightly, is not supposed to be swayed by public opinion one way or another. Yet they march January after January after January, cheerfully, prayerfully, happily, peacefully, bundled up against the cold, with babies in their strollers, and wearing smiles on their faces.

I have been, and I can confirm that the March for Life is the happiest protest you can see because they march not principally in outrage over the lives lost to the scourge of abortion but in abiding hope for the lives yet to be saved.

The March for Life is often seen as the pro-life movement's response to the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. In truth, it is a continuation of the march of human dignity and equality that has defined American history since we first declared ``that all men are Created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life''--yes, life--``Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.''

Raised from the crib on the Declaration of Independence, Americans can sometimes take its lofty and inspiring words for granted, but these truths, however self-evident, remain as revolutionary today as they were when they were penned in 1776.

From the dawn of time, powerful men have dehumanized women, the poor, the sick, the disabled, the young and the old, those who thought differently, looked differently, loved differently, or worshipped differently.

Whether enforced by tribal taboos, corrupted science, or judicial fiat, these experiments in dehumanization are the darkest chapters in human history--including the original sin of our Republic, the monstrous evil of slavery.

The story of American history is the story of our Nation standing up to oppression, of our coming to the defense of the vulnerable in our laws and with our very lives. From Independence Hall to the Bill of Rights, from the abolition of slavery to universal suffrage, to the civil rights movement, to the triumph over nazism, fascism, and communism, the American people have fought through prejudice and pride to assert and to defend the equal dignity of every single member of the human family.

For all the powerful forces arrayed against it, the right to life remains a part of who we are--a common heritage and, I believe history will prove, a common destiny. That is precisely why the march grows every single year not only here in Washington but in solidarity marches in State capitals all around the country.

In Salt Lake City on Friday, Utah will host its annual March for Life at the Utah State Capitol building. The same group of people will also be organizing the annual diaper drive for the Pregnancy Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that provides free healthcare services to pregnant mothers in need. They know that to love is to serve, and to be pro-life is to be pro every life and not just some lives. Our duty to justice and equality extends beyond the unborn child in the womb; it extends to her mother and to her father, to her siblings and her friends, her neighborhood, her church, and her school--to her whole life.

Abortion is evil, but so is indifference. Human dignity impels us to transcend both, not merely by changing laws but by changing hearts, starting, of course, with our own. It is not enough to restore a legal regime of life; we must also endeavor to forge a new culture of life that is broader and runs deeper than the law.

Those of us who call ourselves pro-life have a particular duty to exercise the very right we fight to win back for the unborn: the right to live, the right to grow, to strive every day to become more fully the person God made us to be. A culture of life can be built only one hopeful soul at a time, one by one. We have a long way to go, of course, but the work is well underway. To see what it looks like, stop by the march.

The struggle for life is just the latest battle in America's long, noble crusade for justice, for equality, for freedom and liberty, and, of course, for dignity. It is another fight worth having, another fight most worthy of our heritage, another fight worthy of our children. One day soon, we are going to win this fight. We are going to win this fight, too, just as we have won others. Until that day, America will continue to march.

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