Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), led a special order on the three year anniversary of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand in the U.S.
Dobbs decision at 3 years
A New National Abortion Debate Has Begun
[Mr. SMITH of New Jersey was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.]
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago today, the infamous holding of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were reversed by the Dobbs decision, brilliantly written by Justice Samuel Alito, who hails from my State and from my home county, joined by the majority of the Supreme Court.
They said this: ‘‘The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion…’’
They went on to say: ‘‘…the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.’’
A new national debate on abortion began 3 years ago. While there will be setbacks along the way, every human rights struggle has them. I believe that growing numbers of Americans are finally recognizing the cheap sophistry, the mega deception, and the culture of denial that devalues and disrespects unborn baby girls and unborn baby boys and trivializes the harm suffered by women.
The comprehensive 2025 nationwide Marist Poll found that Americans are against taxpayer-funded abortion, both at home and overseas in our foreign aid; strongly support pregnancy care centers, I mean very strongly support them; and want significant restrictions on abortion.
A large number of elected representatives have passed pro-life laws to protect unborn children, including the State of Texas; and when a heartbeat can be detected at around 6 weeks in States like Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina; or when the child suffers excruciating physical pain, as we know they do, from the abortion procedure, particularly as the child is being dismembered. That is a procedure used to kill these children at about 12 to 15 weeks. To date, 24 States have enacted pro-life laws to protect unborn children and women from the violence of abortion.
Meanwhile, I am happy to say there are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States, each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and care for both mothers and their precious children.
Abortion extremists in several States, on the other hand, including in my own State of New Jersey, have enacted anti-child laws that legally authorize killing unborn babies right up until the moment of birth and also forcing taxpayers to subsidize the violent deed.
Twice the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed extremist legislation that would have explicitly sanctioned abortion throughout all 9 months of pregnancy, again, right up to the moment of birth, and would have nullified even modest restrictions enacted over the past half century, including informed consent, waiting periods, and parental notification statutes.
Let me just point out to my colleagues, the so-called abortion pill, mifepristone, is baby poison. It kills the unborn infant by starving the innocent child to death.
I have done a lot of work on the Foreign Affairs Committee over the years on food security. I have written two bills that passed the House, called the Global Food Security Act. I am all about, as we all are, mitigating hunger in our hometowns and across the world. What does mifepristone do? It starves the baby to death. The little child can’t get the nutrients he or she needs to survive.
This statement by Dr. Francis makes it clear:
It leads to starvation and eventual death to the fetal human being.
We also know now, however, that mifepristone is extremely dangerous to women as well, and this is especially important because this dangerous drug is used to procure abortion 60 percent of the time, 6 out of 10 abortions in the United States.
On April 28, 2015, the Ethics and Public Policy Center released a report titled: ‘‘The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.’’ The key findings were that women who take this drug experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, and other serious adverse events within about 45 days of taking it. It was the largest study ever, known study of the abortion pill, 28 times as many abortions as were included in all FDA-cited clinical trials combined. This is the megastudy, and it found what was not found earlier because in many cases those trials were sham trials.
Let me also point out that it needs to be revisited. We call on the FDA to look at what has been done to women because of this terrible, terrible abortion drug.
Let me just conclude before yielding to my very distinguished colleagues: I believe that future generations of Americans will some day look back on us and wonder how and why a society that bragged about its commitment to human rights could have legally sanctioned and aggressively promoted abortion by child starvation or by dismemberment, beheading, chemical poisoning, and forced expulsion from the womb. I call on my colleagues to defend life.
I also would point out, in an information age, they will wonder, as I do now, how was it that so many were deceived into believing that somehow abortion is safe. It is never safe for the baby, and it is certainly not safe for the mother, as well.
The injustice of abortion violence need not be forever, and we stand united in trying to protect those innocent human beings.
I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. JOHNSON), our very distinguished Speaker of the House. Mr. Johnson of Louisiana.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his many years in this arena defending the sanctity of every human life. I rise this afternoon to mark this historic lifesaving anniversary.
Three years ago today, the Supreme Court corrected an egregious and tragic error and affirmed an undeniable truth that was originally affirmed in our Nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence. That truth is that every single person is made in the image of God, and they are thus bestowed with inestimable dignity and value.
Our value is not related in any way to the color of our skin or what ZIP Code we live in, what our talents are, what are hobbies or our aptitudes are. It is all irrelevant because our value, our intrinsic value, is given to us by our Creator. That is what the Framers of this grand experiment in self-governance believed.
The Dobbs decision, which moved the question of regulating abortion to the people’s elected representatives, reversed 50 years of inhumane social engineering and has saved hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in the process.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America estimates that post-Dobbs, pro-life policies have now saved more than 200,000 lives annually. That means at least 200,000 more babies every year are being given the blessing of life, the opportunity to be born. How profound that is.
On this very joyous, lifesaving anniversary, we remember the more than 63 million who were never given that opportunity to live, and we vow to continue building a culture of life and advancing policies which protect the sanctity of every single human life.
I again salute my friend Chris Smith, the chairman of our Pro-Life Caucus, for all his work for so many decades in this arena. I thank him for holding this Special Order hour this afternoon.
