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Talking Points on the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act 10/19/2004
By Summer Cummins The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would require abortionists to: - inform a woman seeking an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy of medical evidence showing that abortion inflicts pain on the unborn child;
- provide this information verbally and through a brochure developed by the Department of Health and Human Services;
- offer a woman still considering an abortion the option of giving the unborn child anesthesia.
How do we know that the unborn feel pain? - Jean Wright, M.D., of Emory University School of Medicine, testified before a committee of the Virginia State Senate:
Aspects of pain architecture begin as early as six to seven weeks, mature and are identified by their anatomy, their physiology, and the coordination of responses so that by 20-22 weeks of gestation, the evidence reveals a developed system of pain perception and response. … The ability to modulate or blunt the pain response does not develop until the last weeks of pregnancy and the first few weeks of infancy, leading us to believe that the pain perceived in the fetus is greater than that in the full-term infant. - Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences testified in Carhart v. Ashcroft that information is based on “multiple lines of evidence … the lack of descending inhibitory fibers, but also the number of receptors in the skin, the level of expression of various chemicals, neurotransmitters, receptors,” etc. Based on this evidence, Anand said he believes that unborn children suffer “severe and excruciating” pain.
- This evidence is so widely accepted that surgeons routinely administer anesthesia to unborn children of 20 weeks or more gestation when they undergo prenatal surgery.
Why is the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act necessary? - Informed choice: Most women seeking abortions are not informed of the evidence for prenatal pain. During the 2004 trial to challenge the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, abortionist Marilyn Fredriksen, M.D., avoided saying whether she gives women this information. An excerpt follows:
Lawyer: Do you tell [the patient] whether or not the fetus experiences pain? Fredriksen: Since I don’t know that, I do say that most of the time the fetus may not experience anything … Q: Do you tell whether or not it will hurt the fetus? A: The intent of an [abortion is] that the fetus will die during the uterine evacuation. Q: Do you tell them that you are going to collapse the skull? A: No. Q: Do you tell them whether or not that hurts the fetus? A: I have never talked to a fetus about whether or not they experience pain. Q: Do you tell the mother whether it hurts the fetus? A: In a discussion of pain for the fetus it usually comes up in the context of how the fetus will die. I make an analogy between what we as human beings fear the most – a long protracted painful death. Q: I asked you whether or not the fetus feels pain. A. I don’t believe the fetus does feel pain at the gestational ages that we do but I have no evidence to say one way or the other so I can’t answer that question. (From the transcript of NAF v. Ashcroft, New York, April 5, 2004) - Protection for the unborn: Wendy Wright, senior policy director for Concerned Women for America, says:
Just because a baby is slated to be aborted does not mean it has to be done in the most horrifyingly painful ways possible. Every unborn baby deserves to be treated with respect, but until abortion is outlawed we should at least ensure the death is not excruciating. Jan LaRue, CWA’s chief counsel, agrees: Whether you are for or against capital punishment, this much is true. Convicted murderers who have enjoyed due process rights are sedated before they receive a lethal injection. Surely, innocent unborn babies at least deserve to be anesthetized from such unbearable pain. Certainly, no surgeon would operate in utero without giving the baby anesthesia. Further, the Geneva Conventions require humane treatment of prisoners of war, and this practice extends even to the treatment of animals. The Humane Slaughter Act, the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Act mandate that animals must be handled in the manner that causes the least amount of pain. Why does the pro-abortion lobby oppose this bill? If the government acknowledges that a baby feels pain during an abortion, abortion supporters fear that the status of an unborn child might be lifted to something more than a “lump of tissue.” Any legislation that grants humanity to the unborn threatens pro-abortion rhetoric.
What is the public’s opinion? An April 15-17, 2004, Zogby Poll shows that 77 percent of Americans support “laws requiring that women who are 20 weeks or more along in their pregnancy be given information about fetal pain before having an abortion.” To withhold such vital information is to undermine a woman’s ability to make one of the most important decisions of her life. Until the tragic battle for the unborn is won, we must count on measures like this to recognize their humanity and to enable women make the right choice.
Summer Cummins wrote this paper as an intern for Concerned Women for America.
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