Rep. Trent Franks: Americans need to know if candidates will defend innocent life

During Friday’s Judiciary Committee hearing on the Hyde Amendment, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in his opening statement reminded viewers of what’s at stake in the 2016 election and where one particular candidate, Hillary Clinton, stands on not only the Hyde Amendment, but on the issue of whether or not to protect children who are accidentally born alive during abortions.

“President Obama voted against similar legislation four times before becoming president and astonishingly now has promised in writing to veto this bill if it comes to his desk — and I’m told Mrs. Clinton holds the same position but intends at all costs to avoid revealing that during the presidential campaign,” Franks noted. Before being elected president, then State Senator Barack Obama voted against legislation protecting babies born alive from abortions four times, Franks added. Friday’s hearing, as well as Franks’ testimony, also focused on legislation protecting these children at the federal level, which Franks has sponsored.

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Franks also expressed concern that the Obama administration and a potential Hillary Clinton administration “may intend to reinterpret the plain and longstanding meaning of the Hyde Amendment.” Rep. Chris Smith, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, has also pointed to Clinton’s extreme pro-abortion views.

Hillary Clinton supports abortion, including late-term abortion without restrictions (until birth), and opposes commonsense abortion regulations and restrictions supported by Americans of varying demographics and political preferences. So does Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain, which broke precedent to endorse Clinton in the primary season. But strangely, both have attempted to downplay how significant abortion is to Planned Parenthood’s financial bottom line. And what about children born alive? Well, Planned Parenthood has lobbied for denying these infants life saving medical care after being born alive during abortions. Could it be that Clinton and Planned Parenthood downplay their position because they know that such an extreme view on abortion and infanticide is not popular with the American public?

Franks continued, advocating for voter awareness:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not abortion, this is born alive. The American people deserve to know where candidates stand on something so foundationally intrinsic to the republic founded on these core principles that all of us are created equal and are children of God. The American people still deeply hold themselves to be protective of born children and if those seeking the highest office in the land are in opposition to a bill that would protect born alive children, then the American people have a right to know this before the most important election in this century and in the last century on which the core right to live contained in the Constitution of the United States itself hangs in the balance…

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In reference to Franks’ passionate words and tone, much is indeed at stake for the right to life in this upcoming election. In January, Barack Obama, the nation’s most pro-abortion president yet, will be leaving office and a new president will be taking the oath of office. Clinton has the same support from the abortion industry as our current president. The future of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funded abortions, is also at stake, as abortion advocates and the Democratic Party are in favor of repealing this budget rider supported by a majority of Americans. The next president will also be filling the vacancy of at least one Supreme Court justice, due to the death of pro-life stalwart Justice Antonin Scalia.

Franks repeated this sentiment of what is to be asked of the presidential candidates at the end of the hearing:

I would call upon Donald Trump to say who he is on this issue of born alive protection. I would call on Hillary Clinton to do the same thing. I would call on the U.S. Senate to bring this bill for a vote, because if we are no longer committed to protecting born alive children, then it’s time to board the place up that we’re in, and go home, because the battle is lost and this ideal that all of us were created equal and are children of God has slipped from us and I for one do not believe that. I believe that Americans are still protectors of children. I believe that America’s best days are still ahead…