Michele Bachmann: “I want to thank Mr. Hensarling from Texas' Fifth District. He has confirmed once again to me, Mr. Speaker, that not only…”

“I want to thank Mr. Hensarling from Texas' Fifth District. He has confirmed once again to me, Mr. Speaker, that not only is he a giant among men here in this body, but he is a gentle giant, and those are the greatest of all. I think I have seen a tenderness here this evening, a softness and an eloquence that he speaks, the foundational nature of the issue that we are grappling tonight. There is a sweet sorrow, if you will, regarding this subject because we are talking about something that is dealing with the foundational nature of this country and yet of all humanity, and that is life and what we will do with life. And I jotted down just a few words before I came up to manage this hour. And I wrote down that every generation, Mr. Speaker, seems to grapple with an issue that transcends all others. That issue for 31 years has been whether government will protect from destruction life, innocent human life. Our American landscape has changed so dramatically over these last 31 years. I was in high school when the Roe v. Wade decision came down. I hate to admit I was so ignorant when I was a junior in high school, I didn't even know what abortion meant. I didn't even know what it was. What innocence that time was in the early seventies here in the United States. In that time, Mr. Speaker, we have lost 50 million fellow Americans, and now we've lost the children, some of whom those 50 million would have borne.”