Chris Smith: “I thank the chairman for his tremendous leadership on this and so many other important issues, including life issues. I…”

“I thank the chairman for his tremendous leadership on this and so many other important issues, including life issues. I thank Michelle Fischbach for her brave and courageous leadership, and our Speaker for making sure that this legislation got to the floor today. Mr. Speaker, at a New Jersey pregnancy resource center dinner, two women, through tears of joy, expressed their deep and abiding gratitude for the incredible love, respect, and care that persuaded them to reverse their decision to abort their babies. They spoke about how desperate they were, even hopeless. They spoke of the pressure that they felt to abort, until they met the director of the pregnancy resource center, who reached out to both of them in a gentle and nonjudgmental way. They chose life, and thanked God, the director, and the pregnancy resource center for helping them to avert the loss of their babies' lives. Then, two teenaged girls took to the podium and spoke about their lives--school, sports, friends--and their reverence for the sanctity of all human life. Near the end of their remarks--I didn't see this coming nor did many people in the room--they turned toward the director of the center and thanked her for being there for their moms through those difficult times and said: If you weren't there for them, we would be dead. Two wonderful young women talking about how without the pregnancy center, they would have been dead.…”