Chris Smith: “I want to thank Mr. Walsh for his moral courage and leadership in putting this important language in the underlying…”

“I want to thank Mr. Walsh for his moral courage and leadership in putting this important language in the underlying bill--the D.C. appropriations bill. The Norton amendment, the pending amendment, would nullify Mr. Walsh's lifesaving legislation and should be defeated. Let me make it very clear that the only way to ensure Hyde-type protections for the taxpayers is to reject this pro-abortion amendment. The net consequence, the absolutely predictable consequence, if this amendment prevails, is that we will pay for abortions on demand in the District of Columbia. We have, as a Congress, jurisdiction over the Federal and the congressionally authorized funds and in many parts of this bill that are not being contested we have taken action to limit how certain funds will be spent. So this is hardly a precedent. Home rule isn't absolute. A moment or two ago, Mr. Dixon said that the Supreme Court's Roe versus Wade permits first trimester abortions in the District of Columbia. That's only part of the tragic holding in Roe. Roe versus Wade did not just allow first trimester abortion on demand. It also allows the slaughter of unborn babies in the second trimester and in many cases in the third trimester as well. The bottom line, Mr. Chairman, is that we are talking about children at various stages of their development in the District of Columbia whose death, whose killing would be paid for and subsidized by the taxpayer.”