GOP Senator Marks 50 Years Since Roe Decision By Vowing to Make Abortion Not Just ‘Illegal in this Country,’ but ‘Unthinkable’
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to mark what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade to push for further abortion restrictions.
Lankford declared in a lengthy speech that he is not just working to make abortion illegal across the country, he wants to “make abortion unthinkable.”
“The issue of abortion is not just a legal issue. And it’s not just about making abortion illegal in the country,” Lankford said, adding:
I would tell you, I’m working to make abortion unthinkable in this country because we look past the convenience and look to this child’s face and to say, why does that child not deserve life like every one of us? Because at its most basic level, there is no difference between any one of us in this room. And when we’re at this stage right here in our mother’s womb, except for a time.
“So I asked this body a simple question. When does life begin? And are some children really disposable? And some children are valuable? That’s the question each of us need to decide. And I’m proud to stand with those who have marched for 50 years to say children are valuable. All of them. All of them. With that, I yield the floor,” Lankford concluded.
While Lankford spoke on the Senate floor, senior Senate Democrats went to the steps of the Supreme Court to vow to fight to restore federal abortion protections after Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke in front of the court and offered a rallying cry for women’s rights.
“On Sunday, what should have been the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, America mourned instead,” Schumer said. “We mourn the fact that millions of women and girls now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. We mourn the loss of individual freedom. We mourn the loss of a woman’s right to choose.”
Watch above via C-SPAN
