U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who has a 100 percent pro-life voting record in Congress, today discussed Speaker Pelosi’s and the White House’s refusal to answer if they believed that a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being. Thune also discussed the president’s budget and the pro-abortion measures that would direct taxpayer dollars to fund abortion providers in the United States and overseas.
Excerpts of Sen. Thune’s speech below:
“Mr. President, last month, Speaker Pelosi was asked if she thought a 15-week-old unborn baby was a human being.
“She declined to answer.
“A few days later, the president’s press secretary was asked if the president thinks a 15-week old unborn baby is a human being.
“She also declined to answer.
“Mr. President, in case the president and the speaker are in any doubt, let me just clear things up for them.
“A 15-week old unborn baby is a human being.
“That baby has a human mom and a human dad.
“And human beings … have other human beings.
“That’s not a complex moral or philosophical question.
“That’s Biology 101.
“Of course, I’m pretty sure that the reason the speaker and the president’s press secretary declined to answer this question is not because they’re confused about the answer.
“I don’t think there’s anybody out there who isn’t aware on some level that unborn human beings are … human beings.
“The moment of birth does not magically confer humanity.
“No, the speaker and the president don’t want to admit that unborn children are human beings because admitting it would make it hard to defend the fact that they support the “right” to kill these babies.
“If you support abortion, it’s much easier to pretend an unborn baby is just a clump of cells rather than a separate human being with his or her own fingerprints and DNA.
“It’s a lot easier to defend killing that baby if you pretend that baby is just a part of the mother instead of a unique, separate, unrepeatable individual.
“And that’s why the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the press secretary for the president of the United States have declined to answer a question that any 10-year-old could answer: whether the baby inside his mom is a human being.
“Mr. President, at the end of May President Biden released his budget.
“And it was a slap in the face to pro-life Americans.
“The president’s budget abandons decades of bipartisan compromise and calls for the elimination of the Hyde Amendment, which protects taxpayers from having their tax dollars go to fund abortions.
“And that’s not all.
“The budget contains a whole host of pro-abortion measures that would, among other things, direct taxpayer dollars to fund abortion providers here at home and overseas.
“And this isn’t just some theoretical proposal.
“Democrats in the House of Representatives have already acted in committee to exclude the Hyde Amendment and other critical pro-life measures from appropriations bills.
“Mr. President, if we can’t agree that unborn human beings deserve to have their human rights protected, we should at least be able to agree that taxpayers should not be forced to fund the killing of unborn persons.
“The American people don’t think taxpayers should be forced to fund abortions.
“In fact, nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortions.
“The president himself – as recently as his presidential campaign – supported the Hyde Amendment.
“But if there’s one interest group that controls the Democratic Party, it’s the abortion industry and its supporters, and I guess the president figured that he needed to sacrifice his support for Hyde if he wanted to win the election.
“And now Democrats and the president are following through by attempting to force taxpayers to pay for abortions.
“Mr. President, to hear Democrats talk, you’d think that abortion on demand, without limits, up until the moment of birth, was the standard position in this country – and the world.
“But it’s actually not.
“The United States is one of only a tiny handful of countries in the world that allow elective abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy.
“And Americans are squarely to the right of the Democrat Party on abortion.
“A strong majority of Americans believe abortion should be illegal or that there should be at least some restrictions on abortion.
“And that’s been the position of the American people for a long time.
“Despite Democrats’ best efforts, Americans still aren’t convinced that unlimited abortion on demand should be the law of the land.
“And it’s really not surprising.
“No one who has ever heard the thump, thump, thump of an unborn baby’s heartbeat really thinks that we’re just talking about a clump of cells.
“No one who has ever looked at an ultrasound screen and seen an unborn baby waving her hands or kicking her feet is in any doubt that that baby is a human being.
“And at some level every person knows that human beings have human rights.
“And that human beings deserve to be protected.
“Even when they’re small and weak and vulnerable.
“Especially when they’re small and weak and vulnerable.
“And so no matter how hard the abortion lobby pushes, they can’t convince the majority of Americans that abortion is an unqualified good.
“Unfortunately, however, they’ve succeeded in turning the Democrat Party into their legislative arm.
“And President Biden and Democrats in Congress are obediently pursuing a radical abortion agenda that puts them squarely to the left of the majority of the American people.
“And it’s not limited to taxpayer funding of abortion or abortion providers.
“President Biden nominated a radical pro-abortion crusader as secretary of health and human services.
“In May Secretary Becerra appeared before a House subcommittee where he chose to answer a question on federal abortion law by indulging in a game of semantics.
“Not only did he fail to commit to enforcing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, he refused to even acknowledge its existence – even though he voted against the law repeatedly during his time in the House of Representatives.
“Then there’s the so-called Equality Act – Democrats’ unprecedented assault on free speech and religious liberty that would also erode conscience protections on abortion as well as restrictions on federal funding.
“Under the Equality Act, doctors and nurses who have a moral objection to participating in abortions could be forced to participate – or lose their jobs.
“And I haven’t even mentioned the Women’s Health Protection Act, sponsored by almost every Democrat in the Senate, which would threaten even the mildest state limits on abortion.
“Mr. President, it’s deeply disheartening that making sure unborn children are deprived of their human rights has become a defining cause for one of the two major parties in this country.
“We can do better than this.
“We have to do better than this.
“Congressman Henry Hyde, for whom the Hyde Amendment is named, once noted that abortion – which, as he said, denies “an entire class of human beings the welcome and protection of our laws” – is a betrayal of “the best in our tradition.”
“He was right.
“What kind of a message does it send to our children when we tell them that an entire class of human beings is not worthy of protection?
“When we deny human rights to the most innocent and vulnerable humans among us?
“We have to do better.
“And to my Democrat colleagues, I would say –
“If we cannot act today to secure justice and human rights for unborn human beings, let’s at least stand for the great American tradition of freedom of conscience and protect the rights of doctors and nurses to decline to participate in abortions.
“Let’s at least spare Americans who oppose the taking of innocent human life from having their tax dollars go to fund abortions.
“At the very, very least, we should be able to agree upon that.
“Mr. President, as I said, I am saddened and disheartened that a major political party in this country has made depriving unborn human beings of their rights a defining cause.
“But the right to life will not be ignored.
“And while Democrat leaders may deny the humanity of the unborn, there are a lot of Americans out there who recognize it.
“And I have faith that sooner or later, this country will live up to its founding promise and the best of its tradition and extend the protection of its laws to every human being, born and unborn.
“Mr. President, I yield the floor.”