Political Quotes

“I rise today to voice my support for Mr. Sensenbrenner's motion to instruct conferees. This motion would instruct conferees to agree to language that extends this bill's protection to places of worship and the worshipers in them. While violence at abortion clinics has risen in the last year, so has violence directed at places of worship, especially when members of the congregation have been exercising their first amendment right of free speech. In January 1992, a home for unwed mothers called Our Father's House was burned to the ground. Later that year, when Cardinal Mahoney visited a church in Los Angeles, protesters splashed red paint all over the church walls and entry ways. Posters with the Cardinal's picture and the words 'Mahoney is a murderer' were pasted up and almost impossible to remove. In McLean, VA, the Temple Rodef Shalom had anti- Semitic obscenities spray painted in red across the front of the building. These are but a few examples of what is happening across the country. Places of worship are being vandalized, desecrated, and robbed. It seems to me that as we pass a bill that provides protection from interference for those seeking an abortion, we can do no less than to also provide protection from violence and interference for those Americans of all religious persuasions who seek to exercise their first amendment right of religious freedom. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Sensenbrenner motion to instruct conferees.”