James Lankford

Mr. President, Thanks · 25 wordsI thank my colleagues for allowing me to be able to slip in and do a quick history moment on the floor of the Senate.Thanks Claims · 42 wordsIt is an interesting day, the 30th of September 2026. Fifty years ago today, there was the passage of an appropriations bill that was just another appropriations bill, except this one was a little harder because it was actually a veto override. Procedure · 7 wordsLet me set the context for you.Procedure Claims · 402 wordsIn 1973, the Supreme Court ruled on something called Roe v.¹ Wade. For the previous 200 years as a country, every State made a decision about abortion. That was the way it worked. In 1973, the Supreme Court stepped in and said: Nope, every State has to allow abortion across their State, and changed what we had been as a nation for 200 years to a nation that required an abortion in every single State. Well, that was in 1973. In 1976, Congress--both House and Senate--had a serious conversation about are we going to fund abortion with Federal dollars. At the time, just to give you some history context on this, Carl Albert was the Speaker of the House.² A Democrat from Oklahoma was actually the Speaker of the House. The majority leader of the Senate was also a Democrat. This was a Democrat-led House and Senate. They debated it, and out of the House came an amendment called the Hyde amendment.⁵ It was named after Henry Hyde, who worked across the aisle and said: We may disagree on this issue of abortion that just came from the Supreme Court 3 years ago, but we should agree that we shouldn’t allow Federal funding for abortion. So a Democrat-led House of Representatives passed an amendment in the appropriations bill in 1976 which we still call the Hyde amendment today. It is interesting to be able to think about, at that time, in Congress, of the 535 Members of Congress, there were 100 pro-life Democrat Members of Congress.⁶ Now, 50 years later, there is one pro- life Democrat Member of Congress.⁷ A lot has changed in that time period. But this simple agreement that we should not use Federal dollars to pay for elective abortions; that when I pay my taxes on April 15, it shouldn’t be to pay for someone’s abortion down the street--that was the agreement that was set in 1976. Now, interestingly enough, it passed in that appropriations bill in the House. It was sent over to the Senate and passed in the Senate. It went to the President of the United States. It was a Republican President--Gerald Ford--at the time.³ He vetoed it, and it came back to Congress. And with 313 votes in the House of Representatives, they overrode President Ford’s veto to pass that appropriations bill, including the Hyde amendment, on September 30, 1976, 50 years ago today.⁴ Thanks · 51 wordsI just thought, for just a moment, in all the chaos and of all the stuff and lots of important things that we are trying to be able to resolve today, for just a moment, we should just pause and remember the 50 years that we have had this simple agreement.Thanks Claims · 29 wordsEvery single year since then, we have had this simple agreement: We will not use Federal dollars that come from taxpayers to pay for elective abortions across the country. Reasoning · 81 wordsSome of us are still crazy enough to believe every child is valuable. We don’t believe and I don’t believe that some children are disposable and some children are valuable. I think they are all valuable. And I think there is some great value in telling the American taxpayers: You don’t pay for the taking of human life; you pay for research from NIH and other things to be able to protect human life. That seems to be a better value. Claims · 76 wordsInterestingly enough, studies have been done showing that 2.5 million children are alive today because of the Hyde amendment that passed 50 years ago.⁸ Those are folks teaching in schools; those are police officers; those are folks working in manufacturing; those are small business owners all across our country--2.5 million of them--that are alive today, just living life, doing their stuff, because the Hyde amendment passed 50 years ago. And it still gets passed every year. Thanks · 17 wordsI just thought for just a moment, in the Senate, we should pause and remember that day.Thanks Procedure · 4 wordsI yield the floor.Procedure