Roe V. Wade

Floor Speech

ROE V. WADE -- (House of Representatives - January 22, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and good friend from Arizona for the opportunity to speak tonight. I just came back from Iraq and Afghanistan this past week, and on the way back from Kabul to the airport, I looked out of our window of the vehicle we were riding in and I saw two young children running alongside the vehicle, as children will do, having fun together. They were racing each other and racing our vehicle. I looked in their eyes, and I saw nothing but what I would see in normal little children's eyes having fun, except these two young children had smudged faces and tattered clothes that they were playing in, in a war zone. And I thought to myself, these two little children could be just like a number of children we have read about, through the barbarism of individuals for a particular philosophy would have ammunitions strapped to them, and then, in a barbaric, gruesome way, their lives taken.

On this day, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we live in a civilized country, well educated, cleaned up, sanitized, and yet, because of a lie, there are innocent women, and indeed birth fathers, as well, who are caught in a lie and a trap that causes them to, in a sanitized way to some degree, yet the ultimate outcome is the same, to snuff out innocent lives for no reason that justifies that taking place. Today marks the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Since that time, nearly 50 million abortions have been performed. That is a staggering number which intensifies when we recognize each abortion consists of one innocent life snuffed out and at least one other life that is wounded.

While I respect the fact that others may disagree, I believe that human life begins at conception. That means that almost 50 million lives have been extinguished since 1973. Because of Roe v. Wade, we have learned that a reckless majority on the Supreme Court can visit untold destruction and pain on us as a Nation if they search for results in individual cases that are outside the scope and text of the history of the Constitution.

We have learned that the activist justices can find ``penumbras, formed by emanations'' in the Bill of Rights as a basis for establishing new constitutional rights that are not found anywhere in the text or history of the Constitution, as Justice Douglas ridiculously claimed in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, a precedent for Roe v. Wade.

Sadly, unelected activist judges with lifetime appointments continue to make law rather than to apply the law as it is written. As elected officials, it is our right to make law, and it certainly is not the right of judges and justices to do so. Rather, they must follow the law as we, the accountable decision makers, have written it.

We have engaged in a long struggle and must continue in that struggle to ensure that the Supreme Court and our lower Federal courts are stocked with people who abide by the text and the history of the Constitution instead of acting as super-legislators in making new law.

Mr. Speaker, today, on the 35th anniversary of that tragic ruling, my heart is grieved; yet, it is heartened. Though we mourn for lives that could have been, we see significant progress in the fight to defend human life. Just today, a bipartisan majority in the Michigan Senate voted to ban partial birth abortion. Abortions have declined by nearly 20 percent in the past 15 years, and every year Americans have become increasingly pro-life. I, along with millions of Americans, remain committed to saving the unborn and upholding the right to life our Nation was founded upon. Perhaps the tide is finally turning.

I also call, Mr. Speaker, for an all-out effort of compassion for the women and the birth fathers who have been caught in the lie of abortion and have had their lives altered. A loving God offers forgiveness and hope and healing, and we, His people, can offer no less.

I pledge to continue to work every day to bring back the sanctity of life to our Nation. And it is heartening to stand here with my colleagues tonight and with hundreds of thousands of individuals today on the Mall and speak for life.

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