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Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I have a question for this body. It is not a legislative question. It starts first with just a question. It is a question for us to be able to think about, and it is a question, quite frankly, that is essential that we think about but that we don't think about very often because it is introspective, because it is personal, because it connects both science and faith and culture and background. But it is essential to who we are as people, human beings, and it is this simple question: When does life begin?

I don't say it flippantly. It is a real question. It is a question that we have had as a nation now the entire time we have been a nation, and it has been decided by different States and by different people from the very beginning of our Nation.

When does life begin? For some people, they would say life begins at birth, when I can see that child, when they are screaming and crying and just born, red-faced.

Some people would say it is actually 10 minutes before that birth; that it is not at birth; that it is just a little bit before.

There are some people who would back it up, and they would say: No, you are really a child when you are alive and you are viable--that is somewhere around 21 weeks' gestation now--that when you are viable, that is when you are really alive.

Some people would back it up even more to say: Not at 21 weeks; maybe at 15 weeks because science would say at about 15 weeks that child in the womb has a nervous system that is developed and they can feel pain.

Some would say: No, I would back it up more than that. I would actually take it to 6 weeks because, at 6 weeks, it is the early stages of a beating heart, and we would say, when that heart beat is actually happening, that is when that child is alive.

And others would back it up even further and would say: When that child has unique DNA that is different DNA than the mom or the dad--in fact, in that mom's body, every single cell in her body has the same DNA marker except for those cells. For those cells in the woman's body, that DNA is different. They are the only cells that are different, and, as they multiply and divide, that DNA signature grows, but it stays right there with that child.

It is a real question.

Fifty-one years ago, our country had different opinions. Different States had different ideas about when life began. And each State voted, and each State had a debate in their State about when life began. That was what we were like from the very beginning of the country up to 51 years ago.

And then, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision happened in the Supreme Court, and, at that time, nine Justices said: Nope, individual States and people aren't going to decide this; the nine of us are going to decide this.

And for almost 50 years, the law of the land was that those Justices all made one determination for everybody--until 52 weeks ago, when that same Supreme Court, nine Justices again, said: No, this should be back in the hands of the people, where it has always been, because Justices shouldn't decide this issue. This is a decision we the people should make.

Justice Alito wrote the opinion in that decision, and he said this:

Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.

He said:

And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives.

The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.

It is back to the people. So that is where we are.

Now, 1 year after the Dobbs decision came out, on the June 24 of last year, it is still back to the same conversation. We still haven't agreed as a nation when life begins. Maybe, we never will. But as a nation, now, that conversation is happening all over the country. Individuals are having the dialogue: When does life begin?

In the past year, there is really no way to know how many children are alive today that would not have been alive prior to the Dobbs decision. About half the States in America have already passed some sort of law to limit the number of abortions in their State, while about half of the rest of the country has either left abortion policies in place in their State or even expanded them.

Some of our States have no abortion at all in their States, and in some States, literally, you can have abortion all the way up until the second before delivery--late-term, literally the second before delivery--and choose to have an elective abortion. That is a pretty wide spread in our country. It is a pretty wide set of opinions.

And while we don't know how many children are alive today, we can be certain that there are tens of thousands of children alive right now who would not have been alive a year ago, prior to the Dobbs decision. That is tens of thousands of children who are alive that, in the next few months, will be giggling and laughing. Next year, they will be running around singing silly songs. Two years after that, they will be in kindergarten learning their colors. They will be alive today because of that Dobbs decision. And while I understand some people are disappointed that those kids are alive, I am not, and I am convinced our communities and our schools and our workplaces in the future will be glad they are there.

In the past year, while a lot of people have been celebrating the value of every single one of those children who have been born, there are some who have not been.

In fact, in my frustration, this Biden administration has been obsessed with increasing the number of abortions in America, not decreasing them.

Today, there have been numerous unanimous consent requests from the floor of this Senate asking to be able to take out all of the laws across the entire country and to be able to move it back to there is abortion on demand at any stage. They all lost on the floor today, but there is a push on the floor of this Senate today to be able to expand abortion on demand all the way up until moments before birth.

This administration has taken even more aggressive actions than the Senate took today. This administration has shifted a policy longstanding on mail order abortions--do-it-yourself abortions at home, to be able to take a two-drug cocktail to be able to have an abortion at home--where they have stripped out the rules that you have to see a doctor to get this prescription, remembering that this prescription actually takes the life of a child and causes excessive bleeding. You don't have to see a doctor anymore. They have now shifted that to say you have to see a medical professional of any type.

You also don't have to have any screening for ectopic pregnancies. If you take this two-drug cocktail--and the only way you can really determine that is a medical examination--then it could actually kill the woman while it takes the life of that child as well.

If you have the wrong blood type--and the only way to really determine that is to go see a medical professional, although the Biden administration is now saying you no longer have to see them--but if you take this particular two-drug cocktail and have the wrong blood type, it will actually make you infertile for the rest of your life as well as take the life of your child. So if you want to have a baby later, you can't.

The only way you would know one way or the other on that is actually having a medical screening and test, but the Biden administration is so obsessed with increasing the number of abortions in America, they have now said: Don't worry about going to the doctor. Don't worry about if you have an ectopic pregnancy or the wrong blood type.

In fact, they have taken even an extra step and have said to emergency rooms: If someone shows up in an emergency room who has taken this two-drug cocktail and is excessively bleeding, you do not have to report it to the FDA unless she dies.

Every other condition--excessive bleeding, on the edge of life, emergency room trips--don't report those. Those don't get reported anymore at all. Literally, they are saying we don't need the information about other side effects--only death--for this particular drug. That is an enormous shift. That is an administration that is obsessed with saying: We need more abortions in America, and if things go bad with this two-drug cocktail, don't tell us.

I mentioned before that there is a very, very old Federal law that still stands in Federal law that says you can't mail anything that is going to cause an abortion. It is against Federal law to put something in the mail and mail it to someone that causes an abortion. The Biden administration literally has put out a public opinion from their Office of Legal Counsel saying that law really doesn't apply anymore; it is old. It is trying to say: Well, it means something different than what it actually says. I would encourage anyone to actually read that statute and to come to any other conclusion other than what it says.

The Biden administration has made it very clear under the Department of Justice that, we know this is against Federal law to be able to mail abortion materials, but we are not going to prosecute this. Literally, it is against the law, but we don't care--so much so that even if a woman ends up in the hospital, in the emergency room and checked in, don't even tell us unless she dies.

Last summer, there were several of my colleagues who brought a bill to this floor to give a $100,000 fine to any pro-life pregnancy center that didn't perform abortions. Now, just let that soak in for a minute. Now, it didn't pass, but this body was debating and trying to shut down the advice of people who are in pro-life centers who say: I believe in the value of every child.

These pro-life centers, if you have never been to one, they are almost always completely run by volunteers. They provide ultrasounds to individuals who are trying to figure out ``Am I really pregnant?'' They provide free pregnancy tests to be able to help people as they are thinking through it. And, yes, they talk about that they believe in the value in life. But they also provide formula for babies, clothes for babies, diapers for babies. They provide parental advice and counsel for new parents who are terrified, and they say: Hey, we are going to walk with you. If you are considering having an abortion because you are afraid you will be alone and no one will be with you, we will be with you.

Last summer, a bill came to this floor to try to do a $100,000 fine to those folks who are trying to give away free formula, free diapers, and free mentoring, to people who would say: If you keep your baby, we will walk with you through these tough times.

This administration, the Biden administration, has shifted our VA hospitals into abortion clinics. It is against Federal law, but they have done it anyway. Literally, there is a Federal law that was put in place 30 years ago about VA hospitals and abortions, and it doesn't allow them. This administration has told the VA hospitals ``Ignore that Federal law that was passed 30 years ago because we don't like it; we are not going to enforce it'' and is literally taking--because there are not dollars allocated to this--literally taking dollars away from our veterans and their healthcare and moving it to doing abortions in our VA centers instead.

As far as we can tell, there are thousands of abortions that have happened in our VA centers across our country in the last few months, all of them paid for by Federal tax dollars, which is against the law, in a facility that was specifically noted could not perform abortions, which is against the law, using Federal dollars to pay for it.

It should not be a surprise to you that President Biden's budget-- every year he has been President, he has asked to take away the Hyde amendment. People may not know what the Hyde amendment is, but the Hyde amendment is what prevents abortion dollars from being used--from Federal tax dollars.

A lot of people across the country, I understand, have completely different opinions about abortion, but almost every person I talked to would say: I have a different opinion about abortion, but I don't think American tax dollars should be used to pay for elective abortions. But every year, President Biden has asked to remove the Hyde amendment so Federal dollars can be used to pay for abortions, elective abortions, across the country.

This administration is so incredibly extreme about increasing the number of abortions in America, it has even extended to our southern border.

The people who are here in this room know that I have come to talk about our southern border multiple times to try to bring solutions. There are solutions that are, quite frankly, nonpartisan solutions for how he we can solve some of the difficult issues of illegal immigration on our southern border. I am a huge fan of legal immigration, but I think unchecked illegal immigration and chaos on our southern border is a bad idea.

This administration, in the middle of what is going on on our southern border right now, has put out what they call Field Guidance 21 out of Health and Human Services to say that if an unaccompanied minor comes across our southern border who happens to be pregnant, that unaccompanied minor is to be relocated to a State that allows abortion. The guidance gives information about how to even transport individuals who are pregnant who cross our border to abortion clinics, and it gives special guidance for those who are in their last weeks of pregnancy on how to be able to take care of those moms as you transport them to get an abortion--late-term abortions. That is in the HHS guidance that is happening right now on our southern border.

This administration created a website to promote abortions with official Federal dollars that is connected to the White House website. In fact, this administration literally put it as a front-page piece on the White House website: Here is how to be able to get an abortion in America. They have given a $1.5 million grant to create a national abortion hotline so that anyone who wants an abortion, it would be easier to be able to get it. They have created a reproductive rights task force to try to evaluate all States and be able to get information out on how to be able to increase abortions.

When the COVID money was done, now a year and a half ago--the previous bipartisan bills on COVID all had a restriction on any of that money being used for abortions until the last partisan bill was actually put out, and that specifically allows for abortion with COVID relief dollars.

The Department of Justice did not engage when pro-life centers were being attacked. They have engaged to be able to go after people who oppose abortion. In the past couple of years, there have been 329 attacks on Catholic churches and 87 attacks on pro-life centers, just since the Dobbs leak came out prior to the actual release in June, but there have been no prosecutions to go after those folks. Apparently, if you attack a Catholic church or a pro-life center, the Department of Justice is not interested.

There are also conscience protections. Again, not all Americans agree on the issue of abortion. Many doctors and nurses go into medical practice because they have a passion about life. We have conscious protections in Federal law right now that if you tell your employer in a hospital that you have a conscience issue on performing an abortion and they compel you to do that, the Federal Government is charged to be able to step in and make that employer protect your conscience rights.

That has happened in the past under past administrations, but under this administration, literally when this administration came in, there was a nurse who had been compelled to perform an abortion against her conscience at the University of Vermont Medical Center. She had told her employer in advance that she did not want to participate in abortions, that she believed in the value of every child.

She came in one day to work. She was called into a surgery area, and the physician looked her in the face and said: Don't hate me for this.

She said: What?

Then she turned and realized that she had been called in and was being compelled--or she would lose her job--to perform an abortion and to be a part of that abortion procedure.

Typically, under previous administrations, that person would have been protected. This HHS dropped the case. Literally, it was midway through. The Department of Justice is no longer prosecuting. They are saying that is not relevant; literally saying: If you have a conscience issue as a nurse or a doctor performing an abortion, too bad. Change your occupation. We are not going to protect you.

Oh, and did I mention that if you are in the U.S. military now, under the new Biden policy, and you went to your commanding officer and said ``Hey, my grandmother passed away. I would like to get 5 days off to go travel, to go to my grandmother's funeral,'' you would be told no. But if you go to your commanding officer and say ``I would like to be gone 5 days to get an abortion,'' not only would your commanding officer, under the Biden administration, be instructed ``Yes, you can have 5 days' paid leave off,'' but they would also say to you ``How far are you going to travel? We are going to pay for your travel to reimburse you while you are gone.''

So if you need to go to your aunt's funeral, you don't get days off because that is too distant of a relative, but if you need to get an abortion, not only will this administration give you 5 days off to go get it, they will literally pay for your travel there and back to be able to go do it, not to mention the change in the Mexico City policy. Now we are paying for abortions overseas currently with Federal dollars.

HHS launched a new web page that actually gave out what they call creative ways for health clinics to advise teenagers on sex, birth control, pregnancy testing, and abortion. HHS, in fact, has proposed a new rule that they are in the process of finalizing which redefines ``reproductive healthcare'' to include abortion. It prohibits entities from cooperating with law enforcement or a court order if an investigation is related to an abortion. It redefines the word ``person'' to ``a human being that is born alive.''

HHS has also changed the billing requirements for the ACA--the Affordable Care Act--and has blatantly ignored the law on how abortion funding is done, in direct opposition to when this body debated that publicly.

If I can just mention one other thing, my State, like every other State, gets grants for what they call title X grants. These are Federal grants for cancer screenings for women, for contraceptives, for those that are in poverty. That is normal. We have that all over the country for every State. It is a typical grant that comes out to be able to have women in poverty get cancer screenings and get access to contraceptives.

My State was just informed that the Biden administration is cutting off our title X funds and will not send Federal dollars to Oklahoma for cancer screenings for women or contraceptives for women in poverty to my State. Do you want to know why?

The reason that the Biden administration cut off my State is because my State would not include an abortion hotline in all of our medical information going out to the citizens of my State. That is right. If my State would not promote ways to get abortion to women in my State, then the women of my State can't get access to cancer screenings or contraceptives for low-income women.

Literally, what they are saying is: You either promote abortion in your State, or women in your State can't get access to screenings. That is this administration's extreme policy on abortion.

Listen, I understand we have differences of opinion. I happen to believe every child is valuable. This administration believes some children are disposable and some children are valuable. I just don't find any child disposable in my world. I think they are all valuable. I think they are all important. I think we look in the eyes of those tens of thousands of children that have been born in the past year post Roe, and we look them in the face and we say, I am glad you are here. What are you going to be? What are you going to invent? What are you going to do? What is life going to be like for you?

And like millions of other Americans, they will have a chance to live out life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because we are right there looking in their eyes. Let's have this conversation. Let's keep this dialogue going.

We are a nation that should talk about hard things in respectful ways. But let's talk about it, because there is lots of families in the days ahead that are counting on us living out our values and respectfully having dialogue where we disagree, because I think kids are worth it. So let's have that dialogue. One year after the Dobbs decision, we are not resolved, but at least we are talking about it again.

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