View from the Gallery

I’m traveling this week, arrived in Washington, DC, yesterday. I had arranged to meet my congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, (R-TX), and then tour the inside of the capitol—something I didn’t get to do on my last trip to DC.

During the tour we got to spend a few minutes sitting in the House gallery. Arguments were going on for and against the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, HR 3134. This was within an hour of the vote, which resulted in passing, with two Democrats voting with the Republicans, and three Republicans voting against. (I don’t know yet who the three are. What is wrong with them?)

The arguments I heard for the resolution were impassioned, and concentrated on the videos showing that Planned Parenthood has been engaging in trafficking of body parts of babies—some of whom are born alive and whole. Speakers made it clear that the American people are appalled at these practices, and refuse to continue to pay taxpayer dollars to an organization engaged in these activities.

The speakers I heard against the resolution were all female Democrats. They ignored the videos, and the accusations against Planned Parenthood. They repeated the lie that this is all just a political ploy to take away women’s health care. And among the lies, they still claim that Planned Parenthood is a major source of breast exams—except that they don’t. The only thing related to breast exams they do is to tell a woman where she can go to get one. No funding to help. Nothing. Just a lie.

I did manage to refrain from yelling out, “You lie!” from the gallery, but I did whisper it to the person sitting next to me.

Here’s another lie: this bill doesn’t remove any funding from women’s health; it takes it away from Planned Parenthood and makes it available to other women’s health service organizations—that don’t do the grisly abortion-to-body-part-trafficking that Planned Parenthood has been shown to do.

Also, it’s only to remove federal funding from PP for one year—long enough to show that it was all just a misunderstanding or false accusation (which it’s not). That leaves the possibility open of restoring funding if the organization can show it is clean (which it can't).

The President has already said he will veto this bill—or anything that inhibits the child sacrifice required of the liberal/feminist pseudo-religion. (He said he would veto this and any such bill; I have described it in words I’m sure he wouldn’t use publicly,although I think I'm accurate.)

If Planned Parenthood were actually performing an essential service, there would be enough private donations to support it, regardless of funding coming from government. Cutting government funding is not equivalent to taking away a service offered by a non-profit organization. So that is another lie of the baby-killers.

But, in fact, the largest chunk of their funding does come from our taxes. While it is unlawful technically to spend taxpayer dollars on abortions, the tax money allows them to spend all of their other sources (donations and fees for services, plus apparently the profits from the baby part trade) on the abortions they exist to do.

The contrast between civilization and savagery is stark. The process, which comes from our civilized founders, allows for respectful discussion, taking turns, treating the savage pro-baby-killers-and-selling-their-parts contingent as though they were persuadable and had a worthy opinion. The whole system is civilized. But we, who are watching, would do well to stand up and say clearly what Planned Parenthood and its supporters are about. They are savage.

I couldn’t take photos in the gallery. I had to check my camera, my phone (anything electronic) before going up to the line. And when I pulled out a notebook to write down the name of the bill and the bill number, I was directed that we aren’t allowed to write anything in the gallery. I’m not sure of the reason for this limitation. Security, we’re told. But I am satisfied it is all in the Congressional record.

So, no photos from the actual Congressional gallery. But here are a couple of other photos from the capitol.

This is where the Senate used to meet, up until, I think, around 1860.

Former Senate Chamber

This is where the Congress used to meet. It is now a hall of statues.

The former place for Congress to meet
is now the statue gallery.

Each state gets to decorate the capitol with two statues from its state. This one is Sam Houston in the hall of statues. The other was Stephen F. Austin, in what is called the crypt.

Stephen F. Austin statue
in the former Congress hall

There’s so much more to see here. Looking forward to the next few days.