Jeff Fortenberry: “First of all, Mr. Speaker, let me thank my good friend from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his tireless leadership on this…”

“First of all, Mr. Speaker, let me thank my good friend from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his tireless leadership on this essential civil rights issue, to protect women and to protect children. Let me also thank my good friend Mr. Lipinski from Chicago. Each day, Members of Congress come down here and push and shove rhetorically, poke one another in the eye, and I think America is looking for a way to transcend this political bickering, this acrimony that exists down here. So it is very moving to me that the gentleman from Illinois, Dan Lipinski, would come here, join with many of us, and simply say a truth: that women deserve better than abortion. We can do better in this body. So I am very grateful for his leadership as well. Mr. Speaker, soon a Joint Session of Congress will gather for the State of the Union Address, celebrating our American Republic. We have much to celebrate as a country, but there are also very deep philosophical divides, and sometimes the tone of disagreement makes me wonder what happened to respect for the cherished notion of political opposition and the intellectual diversity that makes America truly great. Mr. Speaker, abortion is probably the toughest issue you will not hear about in the State of the Union Address. The violence of abortion has wounded our society deeply. For instance, the Gosnell case, which profiled late-term abortion atrocities in urban Philadelphia, shows what can happen when people become desensitized to death.…”