[Page: H7901]
---

   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. PITTS) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, it was not long ago we were all scratching our heads wondering how anyone could ask what the meaning of ``is'' is.

   Words have plain meanings, or at least they used to. And while many of us laughed about the President's confusion, this kind of semantic game has become a matter of life and death for many newborns because many in the abortion industry are trying to convince us that even after a child is born, even if he or she is born healthy, the child is not really a person. They claim the baby has no rights or legal protections, or even the right to live. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District has gone so far as to rule in favor of this outrageous position.

   This is yet another example of a group of radical judges turning kooky ideas into law through a fiat that the Constitution does not entitle them to.

[Time: 14:45]

   In the case of Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey v. Farmer, the court ruled that it was ``nonsensical for a State legislature to conclude that an infant's location in or outside the mother's womb has any relevance in deciding if the child may be killed. The Court decided that all that matters is whether or not the mother intended to have an abortion, even if it was a partial-birth abortion, which most Americans think is murder.''

   In other words, if a child is born alive because a doctor has induced labor as part of an abortion procedure, regardless of how late in the pregnancy, the child still may be killed. It does not matter how healthy the baby is or how loudly it cries. Once the mother decides to abort her child, it makes no difference how the baby exits the womb, we may still kill the child with impunity.

   Mr. Speaker, how on Earth can we claim to be a civilized nation when we are killing living, breathing children and calling it legal?

   I would like to read a portion of the testimony Jill Stanek gave back in July during the hearings on the Born

[Page: H7902]

   Jill says that babies at that hospital sometimes survive the abortion procedure. These babies want to live, but the hospital lets them die anyway. Here is a little bit of her story.

   ``In the event that a baby is aborted alive, he or she receives no medical assessments or care but is only given what my hospital calls `comfort care.' `Comfort care' is defined as keeping the baby warm in a blanket until he or she dies, although even this minimal compassion is not always provided. It is not required that these babies be held during their short lives.

   ``One night, a nursing coworker was taking an aborted Down's syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have time to hold him. I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived. He was 21 to 22 weeks old, weighed a half pound, and was about 10 inches long. He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had trying to breathe. Toward the end he was so quiet that I could not tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall. After he was pronounced dead, we folded his little arms across his chest, wrapped him in a tiny shroud, carried him to the hospital morgue where all of our dead patients are taken.

   ``Other co-workers have told me many upsetting stories about live aborted babies whom they have cared for.''

   And there is much more.

   Jill's story should horrify every American. We must decide are we a civilized nation or will barbaric practices like this continue.

   I urge my colleagues to support the Born Alive Victims Protection Act. Let the American people know that we still know what decency means.

END