March 7, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 41 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H2578-H2579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     STATUS OF ABORTION IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Grothman) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, today I would like to address the status 
of abortion in America.
  In the past 2 months, there have been two stories that show a 
significant shift, I believe, in America regarding the status of 
abortion.
  In New York, one of our original 13 Colonies, they recently expanded 
the right to have abortions up to 9 months and, as a practical matter, 
left it to be okay for a baby born alive not to receive protection. The 
Governor of New York was so proud of this situation that he lit up the 
World Trade Center and people applauded in the Senate chamber.
  In Virginia, another one of our original 13 States, the Governor came 
out for a bill that also allows 9-month abortions. The morally bereft 
Governor said that, if a baby was born alive, that baby would only be 
resuscitated if the mother wanted.
  By the way, I want to point out here there is this myth out there 
that late-term abortions are only for babies who may not survive.
  I once heard a speech from a woman who quit a late-term abortion 
clinic in Ohio. She was there only one day. At that time, there were 
six babies delivered. Five had no health problems whatsoever, and the 
other had either spina bifida--I think it was spina bifida. And, of 
course, many people live productive lives with that disease.
  Only 10 years ago, Kermit Gosnell of Philadelphia was convicted of 
delivering babies alive and killing them after they were born--perhaps 
hundreds, perhaps thousands.

                              {time}  2045

  You can read about them in a book by that name, ``Gosnell.'' There is 
a movie out as well; kind of very interesting to see the mindset of the 
abortion industry.
  But Gosnell was defiant. When they talked to him after he was 
convicted, as a practical matter, put in prison for life, he said, in 
the end, he would be vindicated. And I think when he said vindicated, 
he meant in 10 years that he felt America would come around to the 
position that it would be okay to kill a baby born alive.
  Who would dream that less than 10 years later, Gosnell may be on the 
verge of being proven right, and that the moral compass of America had 
shifted so much that it would be okay to allow a born-alive baby to 
die.
  How did we get here? There are a variety of culprits to blame. Part 
of it, of course, is the thinly disguised racism of our old friend, 
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. And I should point out 
that even Margaret Sanger, feminist hero, was opposed to abortion 
because as recently as 60 years ago, even among people of that ilk, 
that would have been considered something that you could never be for.
  But she did want her organization to reduce people from races she 
considered inferior, and this was typical of the views of the early 
progressives.
  We also have people viewing it also as a way to hold down the people 
that we consider undesirable.
  Justice Ginsberg was quoted in the New York Times that she thought 
Roe was decided, in part, because of a concern about population growth 
in populations we don't want too many of. Now, she was subsequently 
allowed to say that that quote was taken out of context, but that was 
the quote that was listed. They kind of gave her a chance to try to 
walk that thing back; a chance that wasn't given   Steve King.
  Later, the same point was made by an article in the Harvard Journal 
crediting abortion with the reduction in crime rates.

[[Page H2579]]

  Part of the problem is the usual weight of promiscuous politicians 
who would obviously be for abortion; people like the Ted Kennedys or 
Bill Clintons or Bob Packwoods of the world; and, obviously, there are 
a given number of men who have a vested interest in making sure 
abortion is always available.
  Part of the problem is the pernicious influence of Hollywood. The 
``Me Too Movement'' has opened up eyes as to the mindset of powerful 
people in Hollywood and that, perhaps, is one of the reasons why the 
popular culture would be all largely pro-choice to the extreme or pro-
abortion to the extreme.
  But still, why is it in America that we are such an outlier? John 
Adams said that this country--that the Constitution was put together 
for a morally and religious people. The Pilgrims came from Europe to 
found a more devout country. Yet, in Europe, a much less religious 
country than ours, the norm is no abortions after 12 weeks. You look 
around. Germany, 12 weeks; France, 12 weeks; Italy, 90 days; Portugal, 
10 weeks.
  How did America wind up, in States like New York saying, okay for 9 
months?
  And you look south of the border. Mexico, most of their states don't 
allow abortion to this day; and it is 12 weeks in the area of Mexico 
City.
  So, we will have to look further why did this happen.
  I had originally felt, with the advent of the ultrasound, America 
would become overwhelmingly pro-life. I had toured abortion clinics 
when the ultrasound was a little bit rare, and I could see the language 
that was used to mislead America as to what was going on.
  In the abortion industry, they don't use the word ``abortion.'' They 
talk about ``procedures.'' They don't even use the word ``fetus,'' much 
less ``baby.'' They use the word ``tissue.''
  But I felt the ultrasound would overcome that language that I felt 
was one of the reasons abortion was still so common.
  So who else can we blame?
  Obviously, politicians have dropped the ball. Obviously, we have 
horrible judges who can look at the Constitution, a document founded 
for a moral and religious people, and claim that when our forefathers 
put together that Constitution, they apparently expected abortion to be 
legal, and abortion being illegal for so much of this country's 
history.
  To a certain extent, when you look at the judges, I think we have to 
blame the law schools, you know. Americans, whatever polls you look at, 
bounce back and forth between what people would say is 50 percent pro-
abortion, 50 percent pro-life.
  I wonder, in the law schools, the law school students, the law school 
faculty, what those numbers are, which is maybe one of the reasons why 
so few of the judges seem to be able to get the appropriate answer 
here.
  But where I would like to put the attention is, where are the 
churches?
  You know, it must be kind of difficult to be a minister or a priest. 
You have got to come up with 50 or 52 different topics a year to talk 
about.
  Now, we have a situation going on in this country where we peaked out 
at over a million abortions a year, and we are still over 600,000. You 
look what is going on in Virginia, and you look at what is going on in 
New York; and it seems to me there is fertile ground for the priest or 
minister looking for something to say.
  Nevertheless, I have taken to spending the last few weeks kind of 
talking to people at random as to how often in the past year, when the 
priests and ministers are looking for 50 different topics to talk 
about, how often they have addressed the abortion issue.
  It is not unusual, as a matter of fact, I would say the majority of 
people I talked to who go to a church, it is not brought up at all. I 
mean, I will tell you, it would be very difficult to come up with 50 
different topics a year. But how you can come up with 50 different 
topics a year, and with 600,000 abortions in this country every year, 
and not deal with that?
  But I think a lot of the blame has to lie there. Whenever there are 
great tragedies in human history, I think people expect the clergy to 
step up and provide some moral guidance.

  So I end this speech by saying three things:
  First of all, I ask the pro-life groups not to give up.
  Secondly, I ask the politicians to bring forth bills like the Born-
Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which, by the way, in itself, 
shows some weakness, and we have a relatively weak bill. And that is, I 
guess, what our pro-life position is today, or the bill we can bring to 
the floor.
  It is kind of sad that we didn't even get a final vote on that in the 
Senate, but the bill should be brought up to educate America on the 
state of abortion in America right now.
  And finally, and most importantly, I ask the churches to finally step 
up.
  You know, I look on a calendar, and this June there will be five 
weekends. Okay. So your average priest, your average minister out there 
is going to have to think of five topics to talk about.
  So I would like to ask the people of this country, and any clergy who 
happen to hear this speech, to devote at least one of those 5 weeks in 
June to this stain of over 600,000 abortions in this country every 
year, and ask yourself, what is the right or wrong thing to do?
  And if you are one of those clergymen who, over the last year has not 
addressed this issue--see, I am making your life easier for you, you 
only have to think of four other things to talk about, rather than the 
five weekends in June--I ask you to spend one week in June addressing 
this issue and encouraging people to finally say no more of this 
scourge in the United States.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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