Chris Smith: “even if President Clinton bows to the pressure of the pro-abortion lobby and vetoes the partial-birth abortion ban, the…”

“even if President Clinton bows to the pressure of the pro-abortion lobby and vetoes the partial-birth abortion ban, the fact that the Congress, in what will be, as it was previously, a bipartisan vote in support of the ban and the fact that the American people of all political persuasions, men and women of all ages, are beginning, and I mean just beginning, to face the truth and reality about the cruelty of abortion on demand will have made all of this worth the effort. I chair the subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. I also am chairman of the Helsinki Commission. I have been in this body now for some 16 years, Madam Speaker. I have always found when we work on human rights issues, it is never easy, whether it be trying to help a Soviet Jew, whether it be trying to help a persecuted Christian in the People's Republic of China, there are always these so-called unwanted people everywhere. Regrettably, the human rights abuse in this country is that which is directed at the most innocent and the most defenseless of all human beings, unborn children. This is the violation of human rights in the United States of America in 1996, the killing of unborn children, 1 rac{1}{2} million or so per year on demand, and most of them are for birth control reasons, not the hard cases, life of the mother or even rape and incest. They constitute a very small, infinitesimal number of the abortions. Most of the abortions are done on demand.”