Excerpts of remarks by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
In the House of Representatives during debate on
COVID-19—February 26, 2021
In a radical departure from all previous COVID-19 relief laws—the bill before us today mandates taxpayer funding for abortion on demand.
Today, the Rules Committee refused to allow a vote on the McMorris Rogers-Foxx-Walorski amendment—cosponsored by 206 members—to ensure that taxpayers aren’t forced to subsidize abortion.
Madame Speaker, in his inauguration speech, President Biden said that “the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.”
The noble dream of “justice for all” however will never be achieved if a whole segment of society is legally ignored, trivialized, dehumanized and discriminated against because of where they live—in their mothers’ wombs—and how small and defenseless they are.
Where is the empathy for the battered baby-victim?
The science of human development has not changed—and, thanks to ultrasound, unborn babies are now more visible than ever before.
Growing numbers of Americans are shocked to learn that the methods of abortion include dismemberment of a child’s fragile body including decapitation and that drugs like RU 486 starve the baby to death before he or she is forcibly expelled from the womb.
We know that by at least twenty weeks unborn babies killed by abortion experience excruciating suffering and physical pain. And that until rendered unconscious or dead by this hideous procedure, the baby feels every cut.
All that will be subsidized by taxpayers if this bill remains unchanged.
Mr. Biden once wrote to constituents explaining his support for laws against funding for abortion by saying it would “protect both the woman and her unborn child… I have consistently—on no fewer than 50 occasions—voted against federal funding of abortion” he said “…those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.”
I agree.
According to public opinion polls most Americans agree—58% according to the most recent Marist poll— that taxpayers should not be compelled to fund abortion.
Madame Speaker, lives, as you surely know, have been saved by the Hyde Amendment. More than twenty peer-reviewed studies show that more than 2.4 million people are alive today in the United States because of Hyde—with about 60,000 children spared death by abortion every year.
Over 2.4 million people who would have been aborted instead survived because public funds were unavailable to effectuate their violent demise and their mothers instead benefitted from prenatal healthcare and support.
Abortion violence must be replaced with compassion and empathy for women and for defenseless unborn babies. We must love them both.
These children need the President of the United States and Members of Congress to be their friend and advocate—not another powerful adversary.