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Thune: Grateful for Those Who March for Life

“Americans know that human beings deserve to be protected. Even when they’re small or weak or vulnerable. Especially when they’re small or weak or vulnerable.”

January 20, 2022

Click here to watch the video.

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today expressed his gratitude for participants in the annual March for Life, especially all of the South Dakotans who travel to Washington., D.C. to stand up for the rights of the unborn.

 

Thune’s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):

 

 “Mr. President, tomorrow the streets of our nation’s capital will be filled with Americans from across our country who have come to Washington D.C. to march for life.

 

“They come to nudge the conscience of our nation.

 

“To remind all of us that every day in this country, baby girls and boys are being killed by abortion.

 

“The March for Life of course is just one small facet of the pro-life movement, which works every day in this country to offer help and hope to moms in need.

 

“Pro-lifers collect supplies for pregnant moms.

 

“They pay for prenatal care.

 

“They assist moms with housing. 

 

“They help moms continue with their schooling or find employment.

 

“They provide a listening ear to support a mom going through a difficult time.

 

“The March for Life is just one small facet of that work.

 

“But it’s an important one.

 

“Because abortion is an injustice that happens behind closed doors.

 

“It’s not something we see happening.

 

“And so it’s all too easy to forget that every day in this country, hundreds of babies are being killed by abortion.

 

“The CDC reports that almost 630,000 babies were killed by abortion in 2019 alone. 

 

“630,000. 

 

“That number is so big it’s almost unfathomable.

 

“To put 630,000 in some kind of perspective, that’s equivalent to roughly 70 percent of the population of my state of South Dakota.  Killed in one year.

 

“630,000 unique, unrepeatable human beings.

 

“Future doctors and nurses and farmers and teachers and plumbers and bus drivers and research scientists.

 

“Beloved sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews.

 

“Future moms and dads.

 

“That, Mr. President, is a lot of lives lost.

 

“And so events like the March for Life are fundamentally important, because they provide a public witness to the truth about abortion.

 

“They remind all of us of what it can be all too easy to minimize or ignore or forget – that in this country we are denying our most vulnerable citizens their most basic right.

 

“Mr. President, you would think by now that we would have learned our lesson about deciding that one group of human beings is expendable.

 

“About deciding that some human beings are excluded from the protection and dignity that every member of the human family should enjoy.

 

“Unfortunately history makes clear that great sins are often repeated.

 

“But we don’t have to stay silent in the face of them.

 

“Indeed, we must not stay silent in the face of them.

 

“‘Rescue those being led away to death,’ it says in the book of Proverbs, ‘hold back those staggering toward slaughter.  If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? … Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?’

 

“The March for Life helps make sure that we can never offer the excuse ‘But we knew nothing about this.’

 

“And it reminds us of our responsibility to speak up to rescue the babies in this country who are being led away to death mere weeks or months after their life has begun.

 

“Mr. President, those who would defend a supposed ‘right’ to abortion would like Americans to believe that the decision that legalized abortion in this country is settled law.

 

“But the truth is, Mr. President, it’s not.

 

“If it were settled law, the Supreme Court wouldn’t regularly be asked to rule on abortion legislation.

 

“And there’s a reason why Roe v. Wade has never taken on the character of settled law. 

 

“And that’s because it was a fundamentally wrongheaded decision.

 

“A decision in tension with our most basic beliefs as Americans – that every person is endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, chief among them the right to life.

 

“Americans are not a perfect people, Mr. President.

 

“And we have made some very grave errors in our past.

 

“But Americans are fundamentally a good people.

 

“And while we have not always fully realized the promise of our Declaration – the promise of protection for the unalienable rights of every person – it’s something we keep fighting for and pursuing.

 

“We really believe in the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

 

“And we have the sentiments that go with that.

 

“A strong sense of justice.

 

“A passion for the right.

 

“An instinct to protect the vulnerable.

 

“And so the idea of killing innocent, vulnerable human beings is not something we can easily make our peace with.

 

“And so it’s not surprising to me that despite the best efforts of the pro-abortion movement, a strong majority of Americans support restrictions on abortion.

 

“An Associated Press poll from this June found that 65 percent of Americans believe that abortion should generally be illegal in the second trimester – or from about 13 weeks of pregnancy – while a whopping 80 percent of Americans believe that abortion should generally be illegal in the third trimester.

 

“Americans know that abortions kill babies, Mr. President.

 

“The pro-abortion movement can talk all it wants about blobs of tissue or products of conception.

 

“Science and technology and common sense all point inexorably to the humanity of the unborn child.

 

“And Americans know that human beings deserve to be protected.

 

“Even when they’re small or weak or vulnerable.

 

“Especially when they’re small or weak or vulnerable.

 

“Mr. President, it is reprehensible that a country like ours dedicated to the defense of human rights has some of the most extreme abortion laws in the world.

 

“We are part of just a tiny handful of countries that allow elective abortion past 20 weeks of pregnancy.

 

“Among those other countries are China and North Korea – not exactly the kind of company we want to be keeping when it comes to protecting human rights.

 

“It is time for us to do better.

 

“We can do better.

 

“And I am so grateful for all of the marchers – and for all those in the pro-life movement – who are out there fighting to ensure that we do better.

 

“‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,’  it says in the book of Proverbs.

 

“Thank you to all those speaking up tomorrow.

 

“Keep speaking up.

 

“And I am confident that sooner or later, life will prevail.

 

“Mr. President, I yield the floor.”