This past week, we marked the anniversary of a deadly day in American history that has resulted in the loss of millions of innocent American lives: the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Since January, 22 1973, more than 60 million unborn children have been lost to the scourge of abortion.

Today, we honor and remember those lives, as well as those who have been hurt by the pains of abortion.

In a normal year, tens of thousands of Americans would be marching down Constitution Avenue this Friday to do so. This year, as with so many things, the March for Life will instead be virtual.

But nonetheless, Americans will continue to march – whether virtually, or in person where they can.

The theme of this year’s March is “Together Strong: Life Unites.”

A fitting theme following a year rife with division, violence, and loss. Now more than ever, we must unite as a nation, turning with hope towards the future.

Hope that our nation will heal.

Hope that justice will prevail.

Hope that the grievous act of abortion will be forsaken.

And, given our country’s history – in which we have stubbornly made mistakes, but thankfully, come around in the end – there is much reason for hope.

But we cannot heal and unite if we do not honor and respect all of the American people – born, and unborn.

Through our laws and with our lives, we ought to affirm the truth that the lives of both the mother and the baby matter…. and that healthcare should heal, protect, and preserve both those lives.

That is why I introduced legislation this week to help our laws and taxpayer dollars affirm that truth.

Through my bill, the Abortion is Not Healthcare Act, we have the chance to stop the tax deductibility of abortions, which are currently categorized as “medical care” by the IRS.

Because we must be serious: whatever else it may be, of course elective abortion is not health care. That’s why physicians literally take an oath “to do no harm.”

The government should not offer tax benefits for a procedure that kills hundreds of thousands of unborn children each year.

And we also have the chance to permanently stop the use of American foreign aid money from funding or promoting abortions overseas; perpetuating violence against women and children abroad – especially, baby girls.

The Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act will save countless lives across the globe, and affirms the truth that the lives of all unborn children – regardless of where they are from – have dignity and worth.

As the lyrics of a children’s song in my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, say about each one of us, “I am a child of God.”

We are one human family, all children of God… these littlest among us, too, who cannot yet sing for themselves. But they will soon. They will soon.

Few ideas are more central to who we are as Americans than the notion that people should be judged based on their own merits as an individual with God-given rights, not on the basis of the color of their skin or where they come from.

As our Founders wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Those words are as much a part of our national creed in this moment as they were when they were written two hundred and forty three years ago, and our laws should reflect their enduring truth.

That is why I have been working to end nationality discrimination in our nation’s employment-based green-card system ever since I arrived in Congress. This Wednesday we took a big step towards ending that discrimination by passing HR 1044, a bill designed to fight discrimination in our nation’s immigration system while also increasing protections for American workers.

Specifically the legislation would:

• End country of origin discrimination by eliminating annual country-of-origin caps on green-card visas without increasing the total number of green cards issued each year.
• Forbid all employers with workforces consisting of more than 50% temporary visa workers from sponsoring any new temporary visa workers.
• Close the B-1 temporary business visitor visa loophole used by many employers to avoid H-1B visa caps.
• Levy new fees on all H1-B applications that would be dedicated to investigating fraud in the H-1B system.
• Prohibit the adjustment of status for any member of the Chinese Communist Party or People’s Liberation Army.

The House still has to pass this amended version of their original bill, and President Trump still has to sign it. But if this legislation does become law it will be the strongest anti-abuse and anti-discrimination reform passed since the H-1B program was created 30 years ago.

“That’s their job,” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg responded when asked in 2016 if the Senate had an obligation to act on President Barack Obama’s nomination of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

“There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year,” Ginsburg added.

Justice Ginsburg was right in 2016, and as we grieve her passing last week, we must acknowledge that she is still right today.

In 2012, the American people reelected Democrat Obama for another four-year term as president. In 2014, the American people elected a Republican majority in the Senate. And so, when Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, the relevant institutions were split between the parties.

President Obama exercised his constitutional authority and nominated liberal Judge Garland to replace Scalia. The Senate exercised its constitutional authority and refused to confirm Garland.

This is the constitutional process and the historical norm. There has been a Supreme Court vacancy arising in an election years 29 times in American history. In 10 of those cases the presidency was held by one party and the Senate was held by a different party. Nine of those 10 nominees were rejected by the Senate, just like Garland was rejected.

On the other hand, there have been 19 times when a Supreme Court seat became vacant in an election year where both the presidency and the Senate were controlled by the same party. Only one nominee, Abe Fortas, was rejected.

Confirming Supreme Court justices when both parties control the White House and Senate in an election year is perfectly normal. Indeed, it may be the most normal thing Washington does in this most unusual year.

A healthy family life is crucial to healthy child development. Children from stable families grow up to be healthier, better educated, and more likely to be employed then children who grow up in unstable environments. Sometimes birth parents, knowing they are ill-equipped to provide the emotional and financial security a child needs, place their children in foster or adoptive families that provide enriching relationships and a stable home environment children would otherwise lack.

We can and should do more for these children and the adoptive parents who sacrifice so much to care for them. That is why the Joint Economic Committee’s Social Capital Project released a report this Wednesday identifying five issue areas where state and federal governments can enact better policies that could improve the lives of foster children.

Please do read the full report here.