Replacement of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney with Bust of Thurgood Marshall

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I will have to admit that when I first got this job and walked through Statuary Hall, I was kind of surprised at some of the people who are honored there. In particular, Alexander Stephens was one that kind of jumped out at me.

And right before the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln talked about malice towards none and charity for all. And I think that charity for all was being a little abused when people like Alexander Hamilton Stephens got their statue down there.

Be that as it may, there is another part of this bill that is put before us. We have talked about the Dred Scott decision. I am going to talk a little bit about Roe v. Wade and a history of Roe v. Wade that I think a lot of people don't know about. I get this history in part from an article put out by Planned Parenthood and in part from a book written by Bob Woodward.

Obviously, Roe v. Wade could be described as the most significant court decision in that it legalized abortion, and we have 60 million fewer Americans than we would have if this decision had not happened.

However, a change was made in that decision as they were debating it, upping that 60 million figure a little bit higher because a decision was made at the end to go from allowing abortions at 3 months to allowing abortions all the way until viability--late-term abortion.

The author of that decision, Justice Blackmun, was just going to go 3 months, and he got a letter put out by Thurgood Marshall, who wanted it to be much higher.

I can't tell you exactly how many abortions past 3 months we have had in this country, but it is probably over 5 million. And that was because Thurgood Marshall was in the right or wrong position--however you want to look at it--to go from 3 months to making America one of seven countries in the world where they allow abortions so late. And of those countries includes North Korea, Vietnam, Red China--not countries you want to be associated with.

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, if this bill becomes law and we walk through there, we are going to see Thurgood Marshall--or at least I will always look at him as the guy who weighed in and felt after abortion was largely illegal in this country for its first 200 years, the guy who kind of put the foot on the gas and legalized late-term abortion and put the United States in with those other six countries.

Madam Speaker, for that reason, I am going to vote against this bill today. And, hopefully, someday in America, the Roe v. Wade decision and putting the United States in the position in which even 6- or 7-month- old babies can have their lives taken away, hopefully that will eventually end.

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