Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, S.2466, H.R. 4420, Take Action, A Fetus Feels Pain

Bill Highlighting Unborn Child's Pain Introduced by Pro-Life Leaders in Congress

WASHINGTON (May 31, 2004) - - Pro-life leaders in Congress, with the strong backing of National Right to Life, have introduced a major new legislative initiative that throws a spotlight on the pain inflicted on unborn children by abortion.

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act was introduced on May 20 by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) (S. 2466) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) (H.R. 4420), with numerous cosponsors.

NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, who appeared with Brownback and Smith at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol announcing the new legislation, said, "There are numerous laws to prevent cruelty to domestic and wild animals, but no law to prevent well-developed unborn children from suffering excruciating pain as they are torn limb from limb or crushed during abortions."

This bill would require every abortionist to provide, whenever a woman seeks an abortion past 20 weeks after fertilization, specified information about the capacity of her unborn child to experience pain during the abortion. After receiving that information - - including the offer of a government-produced brochure - - the woman would sign a form either accepting or refusing the administration of pain-reducing drugs directly to the unborn child.

The bill contains a number of proposed congressional "findings" regarding the scientific evidence that unborn children would experience great pain during abortions at 20 weeks (and perhaps earlier).

Any abortion provider convicted of violating the law would face stringent civil and regulatory penalties, including suspension or revocation of the abortionist's medical license. In addition, a woman on whom an abortion was performed in knowing and reckless violation of this law would be empowered to sue for actual and punitive damages.

Congressman Smith explained, "The dilation and evacuation method of abortion, which is used in most second trimester abortions, involves the abortionist grasping the unborn child's body parts at random with a long-toothed clamp. The fetal body parts are then torn off of the body and pulled out of the mother. The remaining body parts are grasped and pulled out, one by one, until only the head remains. The head is then grasped and crushed in order to finally remove it from the mother."

In remarks on the Senate floor on the same day, Senator Brownback said, "Unborn children can experience pain. This is why unborn children are often administered anesthesia during in utero surgeries. . .. consider the D&E abortion. During this procedure, commonly performed after 20 weeks - - when there is medical evidence that the child can experience severe pain - - the child is torn apart limb from limb. Think about how that must feel to a young human. We would never allow a dog to be treated this way."

In a Zogby poll conducted in April, 77 percent of the public supported "laws requiring that women who are 20 weeks or more along in their pregnancy be given information about fetal pain before having an abortion." Only 16 percent disagreed.

The pain caused by the partial-birth abortion method has been the subject of testimony during the trials in lawsuits by pro-abortion groups challenging the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a federal law signed by President Bush last November. The Associated Press dispatch reported on April 7:

"A type of abortion banned under a new federal law would cause 'severe and excruciating' pain to 20-week-old fetuses, a medical expert testified [in a federal court in Nebraska]. 'I believe the fetus is conscious,' said Dr. Kanwaljeet 'Sonny' Anand, a pediatrician at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Anand said yesterday that fetuses show increased heart rate, blood flow and hormone levels in response to pain. 'The physiological responses have been very clearly studied,' he said. 'The fetus cannot talk . . . so this is the best evidence we can get.'"

In an affidavit, Dr. Anand cited scientific evidence that "a fetus at 20 to 32 weeks of gestation would experience a much more intense pain than older infants or children or adults, when these age groups are subjected to similar types of injury or handling," because the neurological mechanisms to sense pain develop before the mechanisms that "dampen and modulate the experience of pain."

In a parallel trial in New York, U.S. District Judge Richard Casey asked abortion practitioner Dr. Marilynn Fredriksen, "You will deliver the baby partially and then insert a pair of scissors in the base of the fetus' skull. ... Do you tell them whether or not that hurts the fetus?" Fredriksen snapped, "I have never talked to a fetus about whether or not they experience pain."

In the same trial, Planned Parenthood Attorney Eve Gartner said, "The question of whether or not a fetus can experience pain is irrelevant as a matter of law."

Pro-abortion advocacy groups had no immediate public reaction to the introduction of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act on May 20.

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, "We don't draw and quarter the worst criminals any more, and yet we subject the youngest and most innocent among us to the equivalent of that horrific death, and worse. The very least that any civilized people can do is minimize the pain and suffering of the smallest and most defenseless human beings among them as their lives are being violently stolen. We cannot imagine anyone but the most calloused could possibly be opposed to this humanitarian bill."

Gail Quinn, executive director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "In light of compelling testimony provided at the partial-birth abortion trials across the country that unborn children may experience excruciating pain during later-term abortions, passage of this bill is urgently needed."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, "Women have a right to know what happens when they have an abortion and they have a right to know the pain their unborn child will experience when it is being aborted. Anyone who would deny a woman such information is hardly a defender of women's rights."

Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said that the bill "deserves the full support of legislators and citizens," because it "would advance awareness of what abortion does to the child."

David Stevens, M.D., executive director of the Christian Medical Association, said the organization supported the bill "because it is consistent with scientific integrity, compassion and the medical principle of informed consent."

A bill has been introduced in Congress that would give women considering an abortion information on fetal pain and offer them the opportunity to have anesthesia

You can also contact your two U.S. senators and your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives by calling the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121. Urge the lawmakers to cosponsor the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (S. 2466, H.R. 4420).

wpeC.jpg (15232 bytes)

YES AND BY 8 WEEKS...

By 8 weeks?
By this age the neuroanatomic structures are present. What is needed is (1) a sensory nerve to feel the pain and send a message to (2) the thalamus, a part of the base of the brain, and (3) motor nerves that send a message to that area. These are present at 8 weeks.
The pain impulse goes to the thalamus. It sends a signal down the motor nerves to pull away from the hurt.
Give an example.
Try sticking an infant with a pin and you know what happens. She opens her mouth to cry and also pulls away.
Try sticking an 8 week old human fetus in the palm of his hand. He opens his mouth and pulls his hand away.
A more technical description would add that changes in heart rate and fetal movement also suggest that intrauterine manipulations are painful to the fetus.
Volman & Pearson, "What the Fetus Feels,"
British Med. Journal, Jan. 26, 1980, pp. 233-234.
O.K., that is activity that can be observed, but is there other evidence of pain? After all, the fetal baby can’t tell us he hurts.
Pain can be detected when nociceptors (pain receptors) discharge electrical impulses to the spinal cord and brain. These fire impulses outward, telling the muscles and body to react. These can be measured.
Mountcastle, Medical Physiology, St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, pp. 391-427
"Lip tactile response may be evoked by the end of the 7th week. At 11 weeks, the face and all parts of the upper and lower extremities are sensitive to touch. By 13 1/2 to 14 weeks, the entire body surface, except for the back and the top of the head, are sensitive to pain."
S. Reinis & J. Goldman, The Development
of the Brain C. Thomas Pub., 1980
Give me more proof.
In 1964 President Reagan said: "When the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing."
President Ronald Reagan to National Religious Broadcasters,
New York Times, Jan. 31, 1984
This provoked a public reaction from pro-abortion circles and a response from an auspicious group of professors, including pain specialists and two past presidents of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
They strongly backed Mr. Reagan and produced substantial documentation. Excerpts of their letter (2/13/84) to him included:
"Real time ultrasonography, fetoscopy, study of the fetal EKG (electrocardiogram) and fetal EEG (electroencephalogram) have demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain, touch, and sound. That the fetus responds to changes in light intensity within the womb, to heat, to cold, and to taste (by altering the chemical nature of the fluid swallowed by the fetus) has been exquisitely documented in the pioneering work of the late Sir William Lily — the father of fetology."
We state categorically that no finding of modern fetology invalidates the remarkable conclusion drawn after a lifetime of research by the late Professor Arnold Gesell of Yale University. In The Embryology of Behavior: The Beginnings of the Human Mind (1945, Harper Bros.), Dr. Gesell wrote, "and so by the close of the first trimester the fetus is a sentient, moving being. We need not speculate as to the nature of his psychic attributes, but we may assert that the organization of his psychosomatic self is well under way."
Mr. President, in drawing attention to the capability of the human fetus to feel pain, you stand on firmly established ground.
Willke, J & B, Abortion: Questions & Answers,
Hayes, 1991, Chpt. 10
What of The Silent Scream?
A Realtime ultrasound video tape and movie of a 12-week suction abortion is commercially available as, The Silent Scream, narrated by Dr. B. Nathanson, a former abortionist. It dramatically, but factually, shows the pre-born baby dodging the suction instrument time after time, while its heartbeat doubles in rate. When finally caught, its body being dismembered, the baby’s mouth clearly opens wide — hence, the title (available from American Portrait Films, P.O. Box 19266, Cleveland, OH 44119, 216-531-8600). Proabortionists have attempted to discredit this film. A well documented paper refuting their charges is available from National Right to Life, 419 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20004, $2.00 p.p.
A short, 10-minute video showing the testimony of the doctor who did the abortion in Silent Scream definitely debunks any criticism of Silent Scream’s accuracy. The Answer, Bernadel, Inc., P.O. Box 1897, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY, 10011.
Pain? What of just comfort?
"One of the most uncomfortable ledges that the unborn can encounter is his mother’s backbone. If he happens to be lying so that his own backbone is across hers [when the mother lies on her back], the unborn will wiggle around until he can get away from this highly disagreeable position."
M. Liley & B. Day, Modern Motherhood,
Random House, 1969, p. 42
But isn’t pain mostly psychological?
There is also organic, or physiological pain which elicits a neurological response to pain.
P. Lubeskind, "Psychology & Physiology of Pain,"
Amer. Review Psychology, vol. 28, 1977, p. 42
But early on there is no cerebral cortex for thinking, therefore no pain?
The cortex isn’t needed to feel pain. The thalamus is needed and (see above) is functioning at 8 weeks. Even complete removal of the cortex does not eliminate the sensation of pain. "Indeed there seems to be little evidence that pain information reaches the sensory cortex."
Patton et al., Intro. to Basic Neurology,
W. B. Saunders Co. 1976, p. 178
How about during an abortion?
This really hit the fan during the 1996 debate in the U.S. Congress over a law to ban partial birth abortions. Pro-abortionists had claimed that the anaesthetic had already killed the fetal baby. Top officials of the U.S. Society for Obstetric Anaesthesia & Perinatology vigorously denied this explaining that usual anaesthesia did not harm the baby.
D. Gianelli, Anaesthesiologists Question Claims in
Abortion Debate, Am. Med. News, Jan. 1, ’96
This brought the issue of fetal pain into the news, and testimony was given to the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the U.S. House of Representatives.
"The fetus within this time frame of gestation, 20 weeks and beyond, is fully capable of experiencing pain. Without doubt a partial birth abortion is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant.
R. White, Dir. Neurosurgery & Brain Research, Case Western Univ.
Also, "Far from being less able to feel pain, such premature newborns may be more sensitive to pain" ...that babies under 30 weeks have a "newly established pain system that is raw and unmodified at this tender age."
P. Ranalli, Neuro. Dept., Univ. of Toronto
Give me more research data.
Data in the British Medical Journal, Lancet, gave solid confirmation of such pain. It is known that the fetal umbilical cord has no pain receptors such as the rest of the fetal body. Accordingly, they tested fetal hormone stress response comparing puncturing of the abdomen and of the cord.
They observed "the fetus reacts to intrahepatic (liver) needling with vigorous body and breathing movements, but not to cord needling. The levels of these hormones did not vary with fetal age."
M. Fisk, et al., Fetal Plasma Cortisol and Bendorphin Response
to Intrauterine Needling, Lancet, Vol. 344, July 9, 1994, Pg. 77
Another excellent British study commented on this: "It cannot be comfortable for the fetus to have a scalp electrode implanted on his skin, to have blood taken from the scalp or to suffer the skull compression that may occur even with spontaneous delivery. It is hardly surprising that infants delivered by difficult forceps extraction act as if they have a severe headache."
Valman & Pearson, "What the Fetus Feels,"
British Med. Jour., Jan. 26, 1980

More about fetal pain from Neurologist Paul Ranalli.
Fetal Study Adds Fuel to Late Term Abortion Debate (Fox News, Aug. 31, 2001)

Pregnant? || The Case For Life || After Abortion || Stories || Multimedia || About SFL

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/SFL/fetal_pain.htm

Pro-Life Groups Continue Push for Abortion-Fetal Pain Legislation

http://www.lifenews.com/nat596.html

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 23, 2004

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life organizations held a press conference on Tuesday to continue the push for legislation that would warn women considering abortion that unborn children feel intense pain during the abortion procedure.

"When a woman is considering abortion, she deserves to know all that science can tell her," Michael Schwartz, a Concerned Women for America Vice President, said.

"We expect doctors in every other field of medicine to inform their patients accurately; we can't let political controversy allow abortionists to hide the truth from women who need accurate information," Schwartz added.

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would specifically require abortion practitioners to tell women having abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that the unborn child feels pain. Under the bill, women should be given the opportunity to allow her baby to have pain control drugs or anesthesia administered prior to the abortion.

Pro-life groups hope the information will lead some women to decide in favor of carrying the pregnancy to term instead of having an abortion.

A leading doctors group has also voiced support for the legislation.

Dr. David Stevens, director of the Christian Medical Association, said that "medical evidence shows that a partial-birth abortion inflicts cruel and horrific pain on a conscious baby."

However, Dr. Stevens is concerned that abortion practitioners are withholding that information from women considering an abortion.

"The arguments of abortionists in these cases reveal deep callousness and a determination to keep the facts from their patients," Stevens explained.

In fact, during the recent New York trial in the lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban on partial-birth abortions, one abortion practitioner essentially admitted to not telling women about the pain their babies will feel.

Judge Richard Casey asked abortion practitioner Marilynn Fredriksen what she tells women on whom she performs partial-birth abortions.

"Do you tell whether or not it will hurt the fetus," Judge Casey asked.

Fredriksen responded, "The intent [is] that the fetus will die during the process of uterine evacuation."

"Ma'am, I didn't ask you that," Judge Casey persisted. "You will deliver the baby partially and then insert a pair of scissors in the base of the fetus' skull. ... Do you tell them whether or not that hurts the fetus?"

Fredricksen snapped, "I have never talked to a fetus about whether or not they experience pain."

Another abortion practitioner in the trial "testified that the pain he is causing a baby during an abortion never crosses his mind," Stevens said.

The media event was held on the same day that attorneys for abortion advocates and the Bush administration presented their closing arguments in the partial-birth abortion lawsuit.

An April Zogby poll shows that 77% of Americans back "laws requiring that women who are 20 weeks or more along in their pregnancy be given information about fetal pain before having an abortion."

Only 16 percent disagreed with such a proposal, according to the poll, commissioned by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, two leading pro-life advocates, are the bill's main sponsors.

In addition to CWA, NRLC and CMA, the legislation enjoys support from the Southern Baptist Convention, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Family Research Council, as well as other pro-life organizations.

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