The following are the remarks Congressman Chris Smith gave today at the March for Life in Washington, D.C.:
Today we march for life to defend the weakest and most vulnerable.
Tragically, since the infamous 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decisions that eviscerated legal protection for unborn children, more than 61 million babies have been dismembered or chemically aborted—a death toll that equates with the entire population of Italy.
Under President Obama, abortion was aggressively promoted at home and overseas. Even longstanding bipartisan conscience protection laws were shamelessly not enforced.
Now President Trump is robustly enforcing America’s conscience laws, including the Weldon Amendment, to ensure that no health care professional and no organization or entity is coerced into paying for or participating in the killing of an unborn child.
In just three years, several executive orders and actions have been promulgated by the Trump Administration to protect life—including Title X reform and the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA)—and the courts appear to be seriously trending in the right direction.
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Several pro-abortion legislative assaults on life were stopped in Congress last month by the skill, determination and commitment of pro-life lawmakers backed by the ironclad promise of a presidential veto.
We’re making progress. Be encouraged I say again, be encouraged.
With the help of ultrasound imaging—we have tirelessly struggled to ensure that unborn children are no longer invisible, trivialized, mocked, dehumanized and killed.
Above all, thanks to each of you for your presence here today and for your tremendous defense of life throughout the year.
It could—and would—be unimaginably worse without you.
Because of you, countless women and babies have been spared the violence of abortion and today live, love and thrive.
Because of you, many women who have had abortions now know there is only love, respect and deep concern for them in our hearts—and a willingness to assist.
We all have a critical role to play.
Re-establishing the right to life regardless of sex, age, disability or condition of dependency is the human rights issue of our time.
So, with faith in God, indomitable hope and charity for all, we recommit today to defending human life—no matter the sacrifice, no matter the cost.
Author: Congressman Chris Smith
