Right to Life

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. I rise today on the eve of the March for Life as a cancer survivor, as someone who appreciates every day that we are given from the good Lord above as a gift.

I want to recount a story from a couple of years ago that my wife and I shared in ``National Review Online''. What do you do when the doctor coldly asks whether you would like to terminate your child? Two years ago this month, this became very real to my wife and I and we wrote about it in the article in ``National Review''.

We received a call from one of our dearest friends. She was pregnant. She asked me if I would be the baby's godfather, but her words of joy were tempered. She then went on to explain a series of harrowing medical concerns, the most significant of which was that the baby might be missing a part of his brain, a part that connects the left and right hemispheres.

She was terrified and she couldn't ask questions quickly enough. Forty-eight excruciating hours later, the MRI was performed and it was inconclusive. She was told to come back again in 2 weeks for another ultrasound.

The next week, her obstetrician, a woman doctor, silently reviewed the file. Then she looked at our friend straight in the eye and asked her if she wanted to terminate the pregnancy.

Now, my friend explained that the doctor had asked her the question in the same tone that she might have used when she ordered a coffee at Starbucks. She didn't blink an eye. She asked the question in front of her two little boys. She asked without her husband there. She offered no explanation or comfort. It was cold.

The doctor told her she had to decide quickly because she was approaching the 22-week limit, which is as long as you can legally seek an abortion in Virginia.

Our friend's response was a source of pride for us. She told us she almost laughed and then politely responded that termination was not an option. She walked out of that doctor's office and never returned.

In a world where everything and everyone seems to be so sensitive about every word that is uttered, we have completely desensitized abortion. We use politically correct words. One is pro-choice. The pregnancy is terminated because no one wants to say that the baby was killed. But if you are ending an innocent life on purpose, I am not sure what other way to put it.

So how did it all turn out? Her ultrasound was completely normal at 24 weeks. Her baby was born. He is my godson. He is healthy. He came here and he saw his godfather get sworn into Congress.

Choose life. Life is not perfect. But each life is perfect.

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