Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the Lofgren substitute amendment would provide an enhanced sentence for a violent crime that causes an interruption to the normal course of the pregnancy resulting in prenatal injury, including termination of the pregnancy. This substitute clearly must be opposed. First, the substitute ignores the injuries inflicted by violent criminals upon the unborn. It appears to operate as a sentencing enhancement. A sentencing enhancement is when you get attacked and the attacker throws you down and hurts your arm, your leg and your back, too. The attacker's penalties gets enhanced by the additional penalties done to the victim. But I challenge anyone to sit back and reflect on the loss they would feel if they were a pregnant woman who lost her unborn child or a relative of that woman. Would the loss felt be the same as the loss of an appendix or pancreas? I think not. Would you feel the same regret you felt for a bone if a bone were broken or a slipped disk in one's back? Surely not. The loss that a person would feel would be a distinct and a unique loss, and the criminal law should appropriately reflect that loss in a separate offense protecting the unborn children. It is our goal to protect them and the mothers in this instance. The law does not simply punish criminals. The law, and especially criminal law, embodies the judgment of civilized society.”