mr. speaker , the reason this vote is so important is simply because the embryo is human life . 
it is not animal , it is not vegetable , it is not mineral , but a tiny , microscopic beginning of a human life . 
everyone in this room was an embryo at one time . 
i , myself , am a 192-month-old embryo . 
the question we face is how much respect is due to this tiny little microscopic human life . 
if we are truly pro-life , we should protect it rather than treat it as a thing to be experimented with . 
lincoln asked a very haunting question at a small military cemetery in pennsylvania . 
he asked whether a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal can long endure ? 
and that question has to be answered by every generation . 
what is wrong with this legislation ? 
the motives of its sponsors are so noble . 
well , i will tell you two things that are fatally wrong with this legislation . 
the first one is , for the first time in our national history , taxpayers ' dollars are going to be spent for the killing of innocent human life . 
that is number one . 
and number two , this bill tramples on the moral convictions of an awful lot of people who do not want their tax dollars going to be spent for killing innocent human life . 
americans paid a terrible price for not recognizing the humanity of dred scott . 
we are going to pay a terrible price for not recognizing the humanity of these little embryos . 
we should not go down that road . 
in world war ii , 1940 , before america got in the war , there was a publication called the yearbook of obstetrics and gynecology . 
and dr . 
joseph delee wrote in that yearbook something that applies to us today . 
here is what he wrote . 
`` at the present time , when rivers of blood and tears of innocent men and women are flowing in most parts of the world , it seems almost silly to be contending over the right to life of an unknowable atom of human flesh in the uterus of a woman . 
`` no , it is not silly . 
on the contrary , it is of transcendent importance that there be in this chaotic world one high spot , however small , which is safe against the deluge of immorality and savagery that is sweeping over us . 
`` that we , in the medical profession , hold to the principle of the sacredness of human life and the rights of the individual , even though unborn , is proof that humanity is not yet lost. '' i believe humanity is not yet lost , and this vote will tell us the answer to that question . 
