Abortion
Floor Speech
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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I rise today ahead of one of the most important moments in our decades-long battle to protect life.
When our Founding Fathers laid out the Declaration of Independence, they talked about life, they talked about liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They called them certain unalienable rights endowed by our Creator. The reality is you can't have liberty and the pursuit of happiness without first having that unalienable right given by God, and that is the right to life.
Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the Mississippi late-term abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
This puts our Nation at the crossroads of history. Our Nation has a moment to finally modernize our laws. We have got the aptitude to catch up with the great advancements seen in science, in technology, and medicine that indisputably show the humanity of unborn children.
We have the opportunity to end an extreme judicially imposed abortion regime that is aligned with nations such as China and North Korea. The United States is just one of seven nations that allows late-term abortions.
We have the opportunity to write a new chapter of American history where the people's elected representatives get to decide abortion policy in this country.
The Supreme Court of the United States has the chance to right a historic injustice and finally overturn Roe v. Wade. Our Court's nine Justices have the opportunity to reconsider a wrongly decided case.
And, by the way, that wrongly decided case that became case law, it was nine men in black robes that really have overruled the will of the people. It wasn't a State legislature. It wasn't the U.S. House. It wasn't the U.S. Senate. It was nine men in black robes in 1973 that has since resulted in the death of over 62 million innocent babies--62 million.
They have the opportunity to reverse this horrific decision that imposed abortion on demand until the moment of birth across the United States. They have the opportunity to recognize that Roe was based on flawed and outdated science and that the right to abortion, which Roe invented, has no support in the text, the history, or the structure of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court has an opportunity to restore the Constitution and defend our most fundamental right, and that is a right to life.
Now, let's go back to 1973, when Roe was decided. Many things were different than they are today. Why? Well, one reason is because science and technology--and certainly fashions--have advanced greatly.
Our phones in the 1970s went from large brick-like devices with antennas--in fact, the first cell phone call was placed in 1973, the very year that Roe v. Wade was decided. They were called bricks. They were about 2\1/2\ pounds. Compare that to these thin, touchscreen smartphones that we fit in our pockets today that are less than 6 ounces in weight.
In the 1970s, computers were the size of an entire desk, and now we have laptops that can be as thin as literally a child's story that I read to my grandchildren over the Thanksgiving holidays.
Now, when we drove in the seventies, compare that to what we drive today. I am thankful that has changed.
And in the seventies, if you were a woman at the doctor getting an ultrasound at 15 weeks of pregnancy, you would have seen something like this. That is hard to recognize, but that was the technology that some ultrasounds had--the best--back in the seventies.
But, today, an ultrasound of a baby at 15 weeks, when they are using the latest 4D technology, looks like this. You literally can see this little one here at 15 weeks sticking her tongue out--15 weeks.
A baby this size is who Mississippi's historic, lifesaving law would protect from the brutal violence of a late-term abortion. That is a 15- week baby. If you don't believe me, take out your smartphone, google ``15-week baby,'' and click on--images.--
Roe and Casey made it illegal for States like Mississippi to enforce laws that protect babies like this one on the grounds that this baby could not survive outside the womb. It was a point called viability.
Roe and Casey's viability line is arbitrary. It is unscientific. It is morally repugnant because, in 1973, babies could survive outside of the womb at 28 weeks of pregnancy. Today, babies are surviving outside the womb as early as 21 weeks but not yet as early as 15 weeks.
It is barbaric to deny lifesaving protections to a helpless, pre-born child like this one simply because she cannot survive outside the womb.
The reality is, even a full-term, 40-week-old baby needs nurturing, care, and medical assistance to survive outside the womb. A full-term baby delivered at 40 or 41 weeks still requires the nurturing and the care of the parent to survive outside the womb. They have got to be fed. They have got to be kept warm. They have got to be taken care of. They can't do it on their own.
Martin Luther King once said: ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.''
This is also true in the case of the Supreme Court's prior unjust decisions on abortion. In fact, the logic of Roe and Casey's viability test undermines the moral coherence of civil rights protections for everyone who is unable to survive without assistance from others. That includes infants, young children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
A pre-born child is not a ``potential life,'' as Roe so wrongly concluded. This precious child and all children inside the womb, at any stage of development, are whole. They are distinct. They are living human beings. They are fully human and fully living. They are beautifully living children made in the image of God, who should be protected by the law.
Now, we have come a long way since 1973. Our laws must now do the same. As you just saw, at the time that Roe v. Wade was decided, it was very hard to clearly see a baby in the womb. But because of science and technology today, it is impossible to ignore the humanity of this growing baby.
If I took this image and we had the American people say, ``What is that?'' they would say, ``That is a baby.''
At 15 weeks, a baby has arms and legs, can hiccup, can yawn. The heart is fully developed. At 15 weeks, the heart has already beaten 15 million times. That baby has distinct facial expressions. It can hear the voice of the mother and respond. It can taste, suck a thumb, and, as you can see in that other image I had, even stick out her tongue.
I am a father of four and grandfather of two. We have another grandchild coming any day. Our daughter's due date is December 3. It is Friday. My wife and I, who have been married now 35 years, have our favorite way of tracking our grandbaby's growth. This didn't happen in 1973, but today we have apps on our phones. I have been using an app called Sprout. There are several out there. I downloaded it. I can see how my little grandson is doing in each week of the pregnancy. It is remarkable--remarkable. We have been following this little baby now since week 8. We are at week 40 here this weekend. This cutting-edge technology is at the tip of our fingers--something we couldn't imagine 50 years ago. We have that at the tip of our fingers. Our laws must catch up with the advancement of science and technology.
It is very important that we are clear about what overturning Roe would mean for our country because there is a lot of misinformation out there. Let me state this as clearly as I can. Overturning Roe will not--let me say that again--will not ban abortion nationwide, as many on the left like to claim in an attempt to mislead Americans. That is absolutely false. It will not ban abortions nationwide. Instead, it returns the power to the States. It returns the power to Federal lawmakers, allowing them to protect the most vulnerable and act on behalf of the people they are elected to represent, because today under Roe, State lawmakers are robbed of their ability to represent the values of their constituents. Yet, because of Roe, the will of the people of Mississippi to protect life is obstructed.
According to a recent Marist poll, 80 percent of Americans are opposed to abortions after the first 3 months--that is 12 weeks--of pregnancy. That is an overwhelming majority of the American people, but because of Roe, their voices are being silenced.
It is time for the Supreme Court to allow the States and Federal lawmakers--those of us who are elected, who are held directly accountable by the people--to protect the most vulnerable among us. It is time that we, as the United States of America, a nation that is supposed to be a leader in the world on human rights, recognize that innocent babies in the womb deserve equal protection under our laws.
I am sure many of my colleagues and most Americans would agree that nations like communist China and North Korea egregiously violate human rights. Yet when it comes to abortion, sadly, America stands with them. There are just seven countries, and we are on that list. The United States is a global outlier on abortion. We are just one of seven nations that allow abortions on demand past the point where a baby feels pain, all the way up, in fact, until the moment of birth. Standing with North Korea and China on abortion is horrifying. It is a disgraceful place for the greatest country in the world to be. We must do better.
I want to thank Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, her entire team, and the Mississippi Legislature for their unwavering support of life. We stand with you. Millions of Americans stand with you, young and old. They are praying for this momentous moment that will be occurring before our Court tomorrow.
As we stand here today, we are mere hours away from a pivotal point in our Nation's history. I pray that we remember tomorrow as the turning point that closes a really dark chapter of our Nation's history and heralds the dawn of truly a new day in America for those who have no voice to finally have a voice; one that honors the human dignity, the God-given potential of all life; one that positions the United States as a leader in the world, that stands up and puts an end to the horrific violence of abortion, especially painful late-term abortions. I pray that we see the Supreme Court of the United States correct a historic injustice, that they would uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion law and send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history.
For the pro-life movement, overturning Roe is not the end but just the beginning.
As I stated earlier, this does not ban abortions nationwide. What it does is it will return the decisionmaking back to the States.
No matter how the Court rules, we will continue to fight on the State and Federal level to pass laws to end the violence of abortion. We will not rest until the day that every life is protected under laws from conception until natural death.
I want to thank my colleagues for being here today to talk about the importance of the Dobbs case. I want to thank my friend Senator Lankford for helping me with this fight for life. I am grateful to the two Senators from Mississippi, where this case originated, this law originated. I am grateful for Senator Wicker, who is here today, and I know he has some comments he wants to share as well.
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