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Talking Points: Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2007
By Leanna Baumer
August 2007

Introduction:

As most states have concluded their legislative sessions, it is instructive for supporters of life-protecting policies to evaluate the types of abortion-related bills that were proposed in the various states.  While not as prevalent as informed consent legislation, bills raising awareness of the pain an unborn child feels during the abortion procedure have been introduced in over nineteen states in recent years.  Five states (Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota and Oklahoma) have enacted laws requiring women considering an abortion to be provided with information about an unborn baby’s ability to feel pain and the option to give anesthesia to their unborn child.  At least three other states (California, Missouri and Virginia) have considered unborn child pain awareness legislation during the 2007 legislative session.

Mirroring this state level concern for the unborn child’s treatment, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) re-introduced the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2007 (S. 356) in the U.S. Senate in January of 2007.  Representative Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) recently introduced a companion bill in the House, H.R. 3442.  This legislation would require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a brochure explaining that unborn children experience pain and explaining a woman’s option to have anesthesia administered to the unborn child before an abortion procedure takes place.  As an effort to affirm that unborn children can and do feel pain during surgeries and abortions, the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2007 seeks to remind individuals of the humanity of the unborn child.

Background:

That unborn children have the capacity to feel pain has been raised by supporters of life since the 1980s.  In 1984, President Ronald Reagan referenced the topic in a speech, saying, “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.)  Prominent neuroscientists, pain specialists, and two past presidents of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as numerous medical studies, confirm that the unborn child does feel and react to pain.

The partial-birth abortion debate during the last ten years has highlighted the issue of “fetal pain” once again.  In Congressional hearings, doctors have testified that unborn children can feel pain at twenty weeks of gestation; however, research reveals that unborn children can sense discomfort as early as eight weeks’ gestation.   

How do we know that unborn children can feel pain?

Individuals seeking to dismiss the claim that an unborn child can feel pain often argue that we can’t really know if a fetus experiences pain because the fetus cannot communicate with us.  Yet, such arguments ignore several facts:  1)By the sixth week of gestation unborn children can respond to touch and have pain receptors in place.  2)Surgeons performing prenatal surgery other than abortion routinely administer anesthesia directly to the unborn child.  3)According to Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, a prominent pain researcher at the University of Arkansas, scientists agree that “the fetus possesses excitatory pain mechanisms (receptors and fibers that recognize and respond to painful stimuli) before twenty weeks of gestation” and that nerve fibers are sensitive to pain well before an unborn child is born (Testimony before U.S. Federal Court, 2003, http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/AnandPainReport.pdf ).

Because at twenty weeks of gestation all pain receptors and anatomical links to the brain for feeling pain are in place in the developing unborn child, twenty weeks’ gestation has been considered the beginning point for feeling pain in proposed legislation and in court testimony.  A wealth of statements has been given by doctors to reinforce this claim.  Dr. Robert J. White, professor of neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University, has affirmed that an unborn child at twenty weeks gestation is “fully capable of experiencing pain….  [W]ithout question [abortion] is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant subjected to such a surgical procedure” (National Right to Life Committee http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/FetalPain091604.pdf ).  

Furthermore, doctors have stated that the pain an unborn child may experience between twenty and thirty weeks of gestation is actually greater than the pain he may feel at any other point in pregnancy or post pregnancy.  Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand has stated, “The highest density of pain receptors per square inch of skin in human development occurs in utero from twenty to thirty weeks of gestation,” thus making these unborn children especially sensitive to any surgical procedure (Testimony before U.S. Federal Court, 2003, http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/AnandPainReport.pdf ).

Similarly, Dr. Paul Ranalli at the Neuroscience Department at the University of Toronto has stated, “Far from being less able to feel pain, such premature newborns may be more sensitive to pain,” and babies under thirty weeks’ gestation have a “newly established pain system that is raw and unmodified at this tender age.” (National Right to Life Committee http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/FetalPain091604.pdf.)

Why should the federal government address this issue?

Most women obtaining abortions do not fully understand that the unborn child they want to kill is actually a human being capable of feeling, sensing and hurting.  Senator Brownback’s legislation, S. 356, brings that reality to the attention of women in an informational manner and gives pregnant women the opportunity to realize that the unborn child within them is hurt through the choice to abort.

Concerned Women for America (CWA) President Wendy Wright says, “Just because a baby is slated to be aborted does not mean the abortion 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.”  The requirement for humane death already extends to federal prisoners and even to animals.  Federal law has long regulated the slaughter of animals, requiring slaughtering methods to ensure that the animals feel the “least amount of pain.”  Sections in the U.S. Animal Welfare Act stipulate acceptable and humane methods of killing pigs, sheep and cows. Thus, it only makes sense to extend a similar protection from pain to innocent unborn children.

What is the current status of this issue?

While S. 356 and H.R. 3442 are currently in Committee, the issue is still pertinent for supporters of life.  Please contact your Senators and Representatives and urge them to co-sponsor this legislation now to ensure the humanity of unborn children.  Senator Brownback has stated, “It is a scientific, medical fact that unborn children feel pain.  We know that unborn children can experience pain based upon anatomical, functional, physiological and behavioral indicators that are correlated with pain in children and adults.  Mothers seeking an abortion have the right to know that their unborn children can feel pain.”
 
CWA applauds Senator Brownback and Representative Smith for bringing this issue before the public once again, reminding individuals of the unborn child’s capacity to feel, to sense and to hurt during the brutal abortion procedure.