The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“March For Life (Executive Session)” mentioning Richard J. Durbin was published in the Senate section on pages S173-S174 on Jan. 27.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
March For Life
Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, one of the best presentations I have heard in a long time was just a couple of hours ago by James Lankford. What he was talking about, I have never heard a presentation more heartfelt and compassionate than he did on the unborn, and I couldn't touch that. But there are a couple of things I wanted to add that perhaps were not on his--he didn't have time to get around to.
It is really important that we recognize celebrating this March for Life that is taking place. It is something that has happened each year for a long time now. I have always enjoyed being a part of it. We have large groups of people coming up from Oklahoma.
However, it is virtual this year as everything else is. It is more important than ever under this new administration and its radical abortion practices and the personnel that have been suggested to be part of the administration. So it is going to be maybe a greater fight than it has been in the past.
In light of that, I am introducing a bill I have introduced before, but we have never been able to get it passed. It is called Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act, which will prohibit abortions being sought because the unborn baby has Down syndrome.
All abortion is tragic, but this population has been specifically targeted. In the United States--it just turned out this way, and there is no law that influences it--in the United States, approximately 67 percent of the unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. All lives have inherent worth regardless of their chromosome count. I think we all understand that.
But my fight does not stop there. I am also joining my colleagues in introducing several pro-life bills as we prepare for March for Life, including Senator Sasse's. He has a bill that is the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. His bill ensures that a baby who survives an abortion will receive the same treatment as any child naturally born at the same age.
People don't realize this, but babies who have been in an attempted abortion and they survive the abortion, they don't get the medical treatment that they normally would get, which this bill directly addresses. This has been going on for a long time. I have a feeling that we have an opportunity. The numbers are changing in our direction in terms of the unborn and have been for some time.
Now, my wife Kay and I have been married 60 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids, so I know something about babies. I know something about babies who are born. And I looked up and I saw--because of the great presentation that Senator Lankford gave, I was looking for some material I had used in the past.
It was 28 years ago that I came down here to tell the story about Ana Rosa Rodriguez. This is what I said. I was in the House at that time. This was in the House Record, and this is what I said at that time. I said:
Mr. Chairman, there is a big misconception regarding abortion and the issue of women and their right to protect their bodies. It is not that right that I object to, but the right that is given them to kill an unborn fetus--an unborn
[baby].
I want to share with you a story that my colleague, Chris Smith told some time ago on this very floor. Ana Rosa Rodriguez is an abortion survivor. At birth she was a healthy 3 pound baby girl except for her injury--she was missing an arm.
Ana survived a botched abortion. Her mother attempted to get an abortion in her 32nd week of pregnancy when she was perfectly healthy--8 weeks past what New York State law legally allows. In the unsuccessful abortion attempt the baby's right arm was ripped off [from her body], however they failed to kill Ana Rosa. She lived.
And I got to know her after that.
Pro-life supporters agreed that nightmare situations like the Rodriguez case are probably not [all that] common, but abortion related deaths and serious injuries occur more
[often] than most people are aware.
It is amazing that we can pay so much attention to issues such as human rights abroad and can allow the violent destruction of over 26 million children here at home. We are fortunate that Ana was not one of those children--she survived.
That was in 1992. I was in the House at that time. But today we still don't have explicit Federal protections for babies who survive the brutal abortion process.
Now, as I said, this issue is not about abortion but about caring for a baby outside the womb. These kids are--they failed an abortion, so they are alive. In most cases, they are in a hospital setting--in many cases, anyway--and yet they don't get the same care. They don't look at them as someone you can save. You don't want to use lifesaving talents on these babies.
The need for these protections become even clearer as we see States like New York and Illinois that allow abortion for virtually any reason up to the point of birth and support infanticide by removing protectants for infants born alive after a failed abortion.
Just a few years after that speech I gave in 1997, I was on the floor with my good friend former Senator Rick Santorum to try to pass a partial-birth abortion ban and end the horrific practice of late-term abortions. Fortunately, we won the battle against partial-birth abortions and finally ended that practice in 2003. That ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007.
But we have yet to pass legislation banning late-term abortions. Only seven countries allow abortion after 20 weeks, including the United States and North Korea. Now, that is horrific. The United States is supposed to be an example in regards to global human rights. Yet we are on par with North Korea when it comes to protecting the unborn.
Senator Graham's Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would help roll back this horrific practice by prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization. That is when we know that babies can feel. It is not even debatable; they can feel pain at that time.
It is another commonsense bill that should not divide us along party lines. A baby is a baby whether in or outside of the womb, and each baby deserves a chance to live as an individual created in the image of God.
There is still much more we need to do to end the abortion-on-demand culture. Under the last administration, we protected the Hyde amendment, reinstated and expanded the Mexico City policy, and stripped abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from using title X funding for abortions. Unfortunately, President Biden is trying to undo all those accomplishments that we made in the last administration.
The need to stand up for our babies is as important today as it has ever been--certainly in 1992 and 1997 when I quoted from talks I made back at that time. We will overcome evil with good by upholding and affirming the dignity and inherent worth of every human being. We will just keep fighting, and we are going to win this one.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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