Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1735, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 36, Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2048, USA Freedom Act of 2015; and Providing for Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, 2 years ago today Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murder, conspiracy to kill, and involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Even though the news of Gosnell's child slaughter was largely suppressed by the mainstream media, many of my colleagues may remember that Dr. Gosnell operated a large Philadelphia abortion clinic where women died and countless babies were dismembered or chemically destroyed, often by having their spinal cord snipped, all gruesome procedures causing excruciating pain to the victim.

Today, the House considers landmark legislation authored by Congressman Trent Franks to protect unborn children beginning at the age of 20 weeks postfertilization from these pain-filled abortions.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is needed now more than ever because there are Gosnells all over America, dismembering and decapitating pain-capable babies for profit: men like Steven Brigham of New Jersey, an interstate abortion operator--some 35 aborted babies were found in his freezer; men like Leroy Carhart, caught on videotape joking about his abortion toolkit, complete with, as he said, a pickaxe and drill bit, while describing a 3-day-long late-term abortion procedure and the infant victim as ``putting meat in a Crock-Pot.''

Some euphemistically call this choice, but a growing number of Americans rightly regard it as violence against children, and huge majorities--60 percent, according to the November Quinnipiac poll--want it stopped.

Fresh impetus for this bill came from a huge study of nearly 5,000 babies, preemies, published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine. The next day The New York Times article titled ``Premature Babies May Survive At 22 Weeks If Treated'' touted the Journal's extraordinary findings of survival and hope.

Just imagine, Madam Speaker, preemies at 20 weeks are surviving, as technology and medical science advances. Alexis Hutchinson, featured in The New York Times story, is today a healthy 5-year-old who originally weighed in at a mere 1.1 pounds. Thus, the babies we seek to protect from harm today may indeed survive if treated humanely, with expertise and with an abundance of compassion.

I urge support for the legislation.

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