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 .  