Chris Smith: “Mr. Chairman, I will try to be brief and just say that the eloquence of the minority leader and his comments are…”

“Mr. Chairman, I will try to be brief and just say that the eloquence of the minority leader and his comments are something that many of us agree with. But he was speaking to the issue of AIDS not the pending pro-abortion amendment. HIV/AIDS certainly is a devastating scourge on the planet. To date it has claimed the lives of millions of victims and we must find a cure. When Mr. Gephardt talked about the $8 for medicine it's worth pointing out that I raised the issue myself at the Committee on International Relations over a year ago. Thankfully, some of the drug companies have offered to provide certain AIDS drugs at cost to foreign governments and NGOs in an effort to mitigate the transference of AIDS to newborns. Since then I have requested our Agency for International Development to make money available to purchase those kinds of drugs to ensure HIV-free babies. Mr. Gephardt really spoke to amendments that will follow this, although he did make a passive reference to the pending legislation. Mr. Chairman, let me just also say that this vote is not about family planning, it is about abortion promotion and the performance of abortion. Our hope is to continue the wall of separation between the taking of human life by abortion and the prevention of human life. And that policy, which was in effect for 9 years during the Reagan-Bush years worked extremely well.”