Garrett on Abortion

Update: I've posted the Youtube Video prior to the text.

As has been his habit, Representative Scott Garrett took to the floor to talk about abortion as part of his observance/opposition to Roe v. Wade. If Garrett spoke at today's March for Life, I'll post whatever media is available.


In the meantime, here's Garrett's floor speech from last night:

And I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for your leadership on this issue today and in the past so much and in the future as well.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, I also hail from the great State of New Jersey; and tonight I would like to begin tonight by talking about a women who lived there, who had lived there in Tenafly, a town in my congressional district. You may have heard her name before. In fact, she is commemorated in a sculpture located right here in the rotunda of this building.

I am talking about Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Ms. Stanton was a leading social activist of her time and a champion of the women's suffrage movement. As a proponent of women's rights, some might assume she supported a women's ability to have an abortion. No.

Ms. Stanton actually took the opposite view. In a letter in 1873 written to Julia Ward Howe, who was a prominent abolitionist, she wrote ``When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.''

She called abortion then what it was then and today as well, infanticide. Today, over 100 years later, women, of course, have won that battle of the women's suffrage movement and the right to vote, but we still allow some unborn infants to be classified as simply, with what she called it, unwanted nuisances and to be killed. You know, permitting this hypocrisy is really a promotion, you might say, of age-based discrimination, and I believe Ms. Stanton would be appalled to know that it continues today.

After all, murder is a direct violation of the very same rights that she was fighting for back then and as proposed by our Founding Fathers in original documents. You know, as the chairman of the Constitution Caucus, I have pledged to fight for the liberties recognized by our Founding Fathers. But I know, realistically, that we will have tough battles ahead in this term and years ahead on many different fronts.

The first skirmish will likely be waged in the executive branch. One of the executive orders that President Bush stated in his Mexico City Policy, and what it does is to ban U.S. funds from going to nongovernmental agencies that provide abortion services overseas. Now, just last week, I joined Representative Lamborn and other Members of Congress in sending a letter at that time to President-elect Obama urging him to uphold that policy when he comes into office.

Now, the second combat zone is right here in this U.S. Congress. Now, due to the successful efforts of past legislators, particularly former Congressman Henry Hyde, Federal funds could not be used to pay for abortions. However, Members who support abortions will likely, very likely, seek to erode these key restrictions

As bad as it is, fortunately, not all congressional clashes are on the offensive. So I applaud efforts of Members who have introduced legislation to protect the health of young mothers and restrict the number of abortions performed here in the United States.

Just today, I signed on, and I am proud to do so, of the original cosponsor of Mr. Jordan's bill, which is the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act; Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act; and Mr. Pence's, who was just speaking, Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act.

Thankfully, the battle for the unborn is not waged merely here in the Capitol, in the Congress, in the Executive, the walls of the White House, or the halls here of the Congress, or even at the desks across the street at the Supreme Court Justices. The main struggle is fought in the towns and suburbs and cities across this United States.

Many Americans strive to promote life by supporting young mothers who cannot afford to raise their child. They do this by adopting children who do not have a home or a parent. They counsel men and women who chose to abort and now experience the very deep depression and regret.

Just closing, just yesterday, I thought for a split second that our new President would seek to protect this innocent life as well. As I listened to his inaugural address, I heard him say, and I quote, ``All are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.'' It seems that President Obama really believes that some people are just too young or too small to deserve such rights or privileges.

Perhaps the new President should study the position of one of his predecessors, John Quincy Adams. Adams once wrote, ``Americans, ask the Declaration of Independence and it will tell you that its authors held for self-evident truth that the right to life is the first of the unalienable rights of man, and that to secure and not destroy that right, that is the reason the governments have been created.''

So, as I stand here as an elected official in this government, I pledge, along with my colleagues from New Jersey, and across this country, to follow John Adams' footsteps and uphold our basic fundamental right. For without this fundamental right, all other freedoms in this Nation shall perish.

We Need to Demand Better

Abortion seems to be finally showing up in the Presidential race. With the seminar at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church on Saturday night, the question has been most directly asked of each candidate. As reported by the AP:

Obama said he would limit abortions in the late stages of pregnancy if there are exceptions for the mother's health. He said he knew that people who consider themselves pro-life will find his stance "inadequate."

He said the government should do more to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to help struggling new mothers, such as providing needed resources to the poor, and better adoption services.

McCain expressed his anti-abortion stand simply and quickly, saying human rights begin the instant a human egg is fertilized. McCain, who adopted a daughter from Bangladesh, also called for making adoption easier.

Fair enough, and clear. People can take from that what they may and people on each side can actively support or oppose a candidate's position honestly.

However, there is a group out of Virginia that wants to be anything but honest in their discussing the campaign. A group called The Real Truth About Obama is planning on running ads against Sen. Obama that are flat out fake:

The ad features an "Obama-like voice" saying he would make taxpayers pay for all abortions, ensure minors' abortions are concealed from their parents, appoint more liberal Supreme Court justices and legalize the late-term procedure that abortion opponents call "partial-birth" abortion.

Other than the liberal Supreme Court justices (a given), this is complete garbage, and the group knows it. It's a classic case of taking one truth, combining it with a bunch of misrepresentations or exaggerations, and packaging it as one statement. Because the piece of truth is there, people give more credence to the rest of it.

The reason this is even hitting the news now is because the group is trying to be exempted from donation limits. Therefore, it's another moneymaking proposition Barry Goldwater used to warn us all about.

I would love to see a truth in advertising requirement for groups and candidates running political ads. If you want an exemption to limits, you have to submit your ads in advance to a non-partisan, confidential committee to establish whether or not what you're saying is true. Otherwise, limits it is.

Sure, there are those that might say it infringes on free speech, but to be telling such patently false assertions in order to pad your own wallets has nothing to do with strengthening the Republic as intended by the First Amendment. How many Representatives or Senators who would stand on the Floor of their respective Houses and say we must defend the right to lie to voters or constituents?

However, such a piece of legislation is unlikely to ever get to the floor, let along through Congress. Unfortunately, both parties have groups at the fringe who benefit financially from false attacks, and voters still get suckered into this stuff.

It then falls on us as voters to stop responding to it. Whether that will happen any time soon is obviously up in the air, but we have to take our responsibility as citizens seriously and not put up with this garbage.

Garrett vs. Reducing AIDS in Africa

This has to be a campaign commercial this year.

In his most recent post on Townhall.com, Representative Scott Garrett came out strongly against the compromise bill to re-authorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Here are Garrett's thoughts:

More than 25 million people have died from AIDS and many lawmakers want to extend this compassionate effort, but sadly this proposal does not help the people of Africa, it only hurts them.

Okay, here are the results of the program thusfar:

• Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission services for women during more than 10 million pregnancies;
• Antiretroviral prophylaxis for women in over 827,000 pregnancies;
• Prevention of an estimated 157,000 infant infections;
• Care for more than 6.6 million, including care for more than 2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children;
• Over 33 million counseling and testing sessions for men, women and children.

Only hurts them? Really?

Now there was a bit of controversy regarding certain provisions of the bill allowing funding for condoms and the perceived potential for funds to be used for abortion. However, at least to the White House the issue has been resolved. From Voice of America News:

"We appreciate the effort to draft in a thoughtful, bipartisan way; we appreciate that we were able to work with them," said Dana Perino. "It retains the important policy principles that have made the program such a success and we applaud the committee's work in quickly moving this bill forward and we hope that the House and Senate will soon follow suit and send it on to the President for signature."

So it's condoms in, abortion out. In fairness to Garrett, he did publish his piece before the final bill came out of committee. However, he had to understand in order to get the the President's signature the core principle would have to remain regarding funds not going for abortion.

However, like with SCHIP, Garrett is only attacking Democrats. He fails to mention the Republicans working with the Dems to improve on a Republican program. So, this program that has helped millions of people is described like this by Garrett:

I hope the Democrats are happy with themselves, because this is just down-right disgusting.

I'm pretty sure the President, Democrats and Republicans working on this bill ARE happy with themselves. By the time this is done 100 million people's lives will likely have been saved, and there is nothing disgusting about that.

Garrett on Abortion

Yesterday was the annual March for Life down in DC. Representative Scott Garrett addressed the crowd, and if I find audio or video I'll post it. Afterwards, he took to the House floor and had this to say:

Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady for managing this hour as Members come to the floor to speak about this extremely important topic.

I must begin my remarks by thanking everyone who took part earlier today, all those folks who traveled down here to Washington to participate in the annual Right to Life March from all over the country, in bad bus rides and distant flight delays and bumpy car rides. I am grateful to all the marchers who came from the great State of New Jersey. Particularly, I would like to recognize the students from Pope John High School and also the kids from Veritas Christian Academy located in Sparta, as well as some of the parishioners who came down from Our Lady of Fatima in Vernon, St. Jude's Church in Blairstown, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Stillwater, and the folks from Lafayette Federated Church from Lafayette.

I didn't include everyone, but the list would go on and on with all of the people from the great State of New Jersey, people concerned and taking part to make sure that their voice was heard.

Earlier today I had the opportunity, and I would say the honor of speaking to the thousands of marchers who came out. They braved the freezing wind and the rain that was coming on as well. As I had a chance to talk to them, I told them that they, along with Members of Congress, were probably experiencing mixed emotions at the time, similar to the emotions I was experiencing.

Think about it, on the one hand, we are immensely encouraged by what we see. We are encouraged that so many people have gathered here in Washington, DC to mark the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. We draw comfort from that fact. We are encouraged that our Nation has not forgotten that tragic death even 35 years later. We are encouraged that we can stand firm in reminding our fellow citizens that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. And most importantly of all, is the right to life.

Finally, we are encouraged that in many cases, our efforts have been rewarded. For instance, the number of abortions that are performed annually has actually dropped down back to levels not seen since the 1970s. Still, despite those signs of encouragement, our hearts are still heavy with sadness and that is because we mourn the millions of babies who have been mercilessly killed before they can even take their first single breath. And we grieve for the mothers and fathers who suffer from the emotional pain of having to have gone through an abortion.

We lament the fact of a continuing decline of morality, civility, and respect for human dignity and worth. For me and my constituents in New Jersey, I am particularly disheartened by a study that was released just last week that showed that our home State, the so-called Garden State, has the second highest abortion rate in the Nation.

It is in moments like these that we must turn our gaze upward and remember the One, the One who created life is also the One who governs the universe. He commands us to ``run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.''

And so today, we ultimately find encouragement in knowing that the battle is not over. The battle is not ours alone, and the might of right is on our side.

So we will keep working to increase the number of States that have substantive parental involvement laws, thereby protecting teens from the abortion propaganda. We will continue to prohibit partial-birth abortions and fight that in other States as well. And we will show by example how to value life.

Finally, some day I pray that we will experience a January 22 free of these mixed emotions. And instead, we will be able to celebrate a renewed culture of life in this entire Nation.

We elected officials come to the floor to remember the weakest among us. Yet I know we will succeed not because of who we are, but because of what Americans all across this great Nation are doing on behalf of life.