As the one-year anniversary approaches this Saturday of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today took to the Senate floor to ask Senators a simple question: when does life begin?
In his remarks, Lankford also reiterated the ways that President Biden’s Administration is the most pro-abortion White House in history. He cited the dangerous mail-order abortions being pushed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He also called out the Administration for taking funding from veterans’ health care to provide to abortions at VA health centers with up to 1,000 abortions happening in VA health centers paid for by federal tax dollars. Lankford stood up for conscience protections for those who do not want to perform abortions as the Biden Administration refuses to stand up for them. Lankford also stood up for women and families in Oklahoma who rely on Title X funding for health care after the Biden Administration has canceled the funding because the state will not refer for abortion.
Lankford remains the leading pro-life voice in the Senate. Lankford recently led the Oklahoma congressional delegation on a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra for suspending the $4.5 million Title X Family Planning grant awarded to the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH). HHS is suspending this funding over the OSDH’s refusal to refer for abortions. Lankford and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) led colleagues in letters to seven major US pharmacies that warn them of their obligations under federal and state laws, including longstanding federal laws that criminalize the mailing and interstate shipment of abortion drugs.
To stand against the Biden Administration ignoring long-standing law prohibiting federal tax dollars from being used to fund abortions, Lankford and 67 of his colleagues introduced the Resolution of Disapproval after the VA published its rule to provide abortions at VA health centers, just a few months after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs. The resolution failed.
Excerpts
…I have a question for this body. It’s not a legislative question. It starts first as just a question. It’s a question for us to be able to think about, and it’s a question, quite frankly, that’s essential that we think about, but we don’t think about very often. Because it’s introspective, because it’s personal, because it connects both science and faith and culture and background, but it’s essential to who we are as people, human beings, and it’s this simple question: when does life begin?…
…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.’ 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 and nine justices again said, ‘No, this should be back in the hands of the people, where it’s always been because justices shouldn’t decide this issue. This is a decision we the people should make…
…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 for their state or even expanded. Some of our states have no abortion at all in their states. In some states literally you can have an abortion all the way up to the second before delivery…
…Today there have been numerous unanimous consent requests on the floor of this Senate asking to take out all the laws in the entire country and being able to move it back to there’s abortion on demand at any stage. They all lost on the floor today, but there’s 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…
…Last summer there were several of my colleagues that brought a bill to this floor to give $100,000 fine to any pro-life pregnancy center that didn’t perform abortions. Now just let that soak in for a minute. It didn’t pass, but this body was debating and trying to shut down the voice of people that are in pro-life centers that say, ‘I believe in the value of every child’…They provide ultrasounds to individuals that are trying to figure out am Ireally pregnant. They provide free pregnancy tests. And, yes, they talk about that they believe in the value of life. But they also provide formula for babies, clothes for babies, diapers for babies. They provide parental advice and counsel for new parents that are terrified and saying we’re going to walk with you…
…Literally there’s a federal law that was put in place 30 years ago about VA hospitals and abortions, and it doesn’t allow that. This Administration has told the VA hospitals, ‘Ignore that federal law that was passed 30 years ago because we don’t like it. We’re not going to enforce it.’ And is literally taking, because it’s not dollars allocated to this, literally taking dollars away from our veterans and their health care and moving it to do abortions in our VA centers instead…
…This Administration created a website to promote abortion with official federal dollars. It’s connected to the White House website. In fact, this Administration literally put it as a front-page piece on the White House website. Here’s how to be able to get an abortion in America. They’ve given a $1.5 million grant to create a national abortion hotline so anyone who wants an abortion, it would be easier to be able to get it…My state, like every other state, gets grants for what they call Title X grants, federal grants for cancer screening for women, for contraceptives for those that are in poverty. That’s normal. We have that all over the country for every state. It’s a typical grant to help women in poverty to get cancer screenings. 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 or contraceptive for women in poverty in my state. Do you want to know why? The reason is because my state would not include an abortion hotline in all of our medical information going out to the citizens of my state….
…We’re a nation that should talk about hard things in respectful ways, but let’s talk about it because there’s lots of families in the days ahead that are counting on us living out our values and respectfully having dialogue where we disagree because Ithink kids are worth it so let’s have that dialogue. One year after the Dobbs decision, we’re not resolved but at least we’re talking about it again…
