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Pro-life Congressmen Commemorate Roe v. Wade Anniversary with Speeches in House

By Hilary White

WASHINGTON, January 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A series of speeches in the US Congress marked the legalisation of abortion in the US by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973. A group of pro-life representatives urged President Obama to pursue pro-life policies, such as retaining the Mexico City Policy that restricts funding for international organisations that promote abortion overseas. They also denounced the new president’s stated intention to sign the Freedom of Choice Act that would lift all state restrictions on abortion in the country. (All the speeches can be viewed here: http://ca.youtube.com/prolifeinformation)

Virginia Foxx, a Republican congresswoman from North Carolina, told the House of Representatives that the “infamous” anniversary of Roe v. Wade should be spent in remembrance of the “millions of unborn children whose blood has been shed in the abortion mills of America” in the last 36 years.

Foxx said, “The pro-life cause has roots deep in the historic battles against all forms of injustice brutality and inequality” that has characterised American history. “Defending the defenceless is one of the most important duties we have as members of Congress.”

She described the election of the “stridently pro-abortion” Barack Obama as a set-back for the pro-life movement, but said that abortion lobbyists are on the “losing side.” “We are on the side of justice,” she said. “We are on the side of the innocent and the defenceless. And we are on the side of equal dignity for every human life.”

Foxx decried the plans of President Obama to pass the “Orwellian” Freedom of Choice Act, that she warned would allow “tax-payer funded abortion on demand.”

Rep. Christopher Smith, who represents the New Jersey's 4th congressional district, said that the American public would be “shocked and dismayed, and even discouraged to learn” that Planned Parenthood alone performs almost 300,000 abortions in their private facilities and that the organisation is seeking “even more money” to expand. “More clinics,” Smith said, “equals more dead babies and more wounded mothers.”

Michael Pence, the representative of Indiana's 6th congressional district, commended the “tens of thousands” of Americans who would march in Washington to mark the anniversary of Roe. With the election of Barack Obama, Pence said, “It is accurate to say that life is losing in Washington DC, both in our judiciary and among a pro-abortion majority in the House and Senate.”

“But let me say with confidence that while life may be losing in Washington DC, I believe that life is winning in America. More Americans embrace the sanctity of life today than ever before, especially younger Americans.”

He cited the work of the pro-life movement that has resulted in the decline of abortion by 20 percent in the last 15 years. He praised the “legion” of groups across the country, including crisis pregnancy centres, for having helped to raise awareness in public of the sanctity of life.

Pence decried the fact that the largest abortionist group in America, Planned Parenthood, is the recipient of tens of millions of dollars of public funding. He urged his colleagues to support a piece of legislation that would restrict federal “family planning” funds from abortion-providing organisations.

Other congressmen who spoke in defence of life during the House session were: Rep. Scott Garrett; Rep. Bob Latta; Rep. Michelle Bachmann; Rep. Doug Lamborn; Rep. David Roe; Rep. Jim Jordan; Rep. Paul Broun; Rep. Jeff Fortenberry; and Rep. Mark Souder.

(All the speeches can be viewed here: http://ca.youtube.com/prolifeinformation)

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