It connects to all of us in extremely personal ways.
We learned that this week
 an organization called Planned Parenthood
is using children that are aborted 
and sending the bodies of those aborted children to research facilities
 sometimes for sale
different body parts
to be used in research.
This morning in an appropriations hearing 
the president and I both were in
we had an extensive conversation about the rights of Orca whales
and this protracted conversation went on and on
 that many people also were connected to
about the rights of Orca whales and the care for them.
And then we had a protracted conversation conversation about horse slaughter
and how horses would be humanely put down.
But in the middle of all that
conversation happening today
there were children still being aborted 
with an instrument reaching in to a mother
tearing apart a child
but carefully protecting certain organs
because those organs would be valuable to sell.
Now the challenge we have as a nation is
The argument is for that
baby
that baby is really not a baby, it's just a fetus, it's tissue.
"That's not a human baby," is what everyone's told.
That's just tissue and it's up to the mom
to determine what happens to that tissue.
And then on the flip side of it,
moments later, they take "That tissue"
and then sell it because it's human organs
that are needed for research.
You can't say in one moment, "That's not a human"
and then sell it for the next moment as a human organ
and say now suddenly it is.
It was a human all the way through.
There was never a time that wasn't a child.
There was never a time that wasn't a human.
And it seems the ultimate irony to
me
that we spend time talking about humane treatment of animals
 being put down like in horse slaughter
and we completely miss
 children being ripped apart in the womb
and their body parts being sold.
So here's how it happens
a mom comes into a facility
gives consent to have an abortion, makes that request.
After that request is made to some moms
and we don't know exactly how they
choose which moms
to some moms they then ask consent for their child
after it's aborted
to be used for research purposes.
From the video that was put out this
week they said that was actually
comforting to some moms
that they would know how traumatic the abortion is
that at least some good would come out of it
that those body parts would then be used 
for research to hopefully save other children
which again comes back to this ultimate irony
that we would literally tear one child apart in an abortion
with the assumption that hopefully
that would actually help some other child in the future.
missing out on the significance of
the child that's right there
that could be helped by protecting their life.
And then the doctor in this particular video gives the details
of how once they get
that consent from the mom
they would be careful to reach in and actually crush the head of the child
to kill the child in the womb
so they could preserve the
rest of the organs.
 Because the kidney has value
because the liver has value
because the lungs have value
because the muscles in the legs have value.
I would tell you 
that child has value.
And that every single adult that can hear me right now
was once 20 weeks old in the womb
and we can look at each other
 and understand the difference between that child in the womb
and any of us now, is time.
But I think maybe the question needs to be asked
why this Congress
would spend time today
 debating horse slaughter
and debating Orca whales
but yet we've become so numb to children
that the other debate doesn't seem to come up.
Maybe we need to start again as a nation
asking a basic question
If that's a child
and in our declaration
we said every person, that we
believe, is endowed by our Creator
to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness
 maybe we need to ask as a nation again
do we really believe that?
Maybe we need to ask a question again with Planned Parenthood
who we give half a billion dollars in funding to
maybe this is not a good idea?
And other organizations that serve people all over the country
raise their funds separately
and don't do it by federal funds
maybe that's a legitimate question that we need to ask.
Mr. President
we have hard questions to deal with
as a nation
budget
regulations
future direction that we're going.
Why don't we add to the list
do we really care about children or not?
And on a day that we passed an education bill
before we pat ourselves on the back
saying how much we care about children
let's make sure we're dealing with a compassion for children at every age
not just at certain ages.
Have we really become this numb?
 And how do we turn it around?
With that, I yield back.
