Mike Pence: “Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege for me to join my colleague from Missouri as he leads this critical Special Order…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege for me to join my colleague from Missouri as he leads this critical Special Order among my colleagues on legislation that this Congress will take up tomorrow, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. We heard much debate today, Mr. Speaker, on the subject of this legislation, and, for all the world, it seemed as though we were talking about a bill that had something to do with the debate over abortion. This bill most certainly emanates around a respect for the life of a mother and the nascent life within her, but this is not a debate over abortion or the right to life, but rather this is a debate about justice. It is about the institution of Congress in Federal law recognizing, as 29 other States have recognized, the demands of justice when a woman and her unborn child are both the victims of a crime. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is simply legislation authored by the distinguished gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart) which recognizes that when a criminal attacks a pregnant woman and injures or kills her unborn child, that he has claimed two human victims.”