Chris Smith: “I thank my friend for yielding. Mr. Speaker, pain--we all dread it, avoid it, even fear it, and go to extraordinary…”

“I thank my friend for yielding. Mr. Speaker, pain--we all dread it, avoid it, even fear it, and go to extraordinary lengths to mitigate its severity and duration. By now, many Americans know that abortion methods are violent and include dismemberment of a child's fragile body, chemical poisoning, and hypodermic needles to the baby's heart. There is nothing humane, benign, or compassionate about abortion. It is violence against children, and it hurts women. But the relatively new scientific understanding that unborn children are forced to endure excruciating pain in the performance of later-term abortions--and perhaps even earlier--should shock us. Children not only die from abortion; they suffer. This is a wake-up call to all Americans: unborn children feel pain. This highly disturbing fact should further inspire us all to seek to protect these weak and vulnerable children. Tragically, for the defenseless child in the womb, the D.C. Council voted in 2004 to eviscerate every legal protection afforded unborn children, making abortion on demand legal in D.C. right up until the moment of birth. The D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, authored by my distinguished colleague, Trent Franks, seeks to safeguard at least some of these kids--from 20 weeks onward--from both pain and death. Of note, today's vote comes on the heels of yesterday's Federal district court decision upholding a similar law in Arizona.…”