Politics
Friday November 4, 2005
US Congressional Committee Examines Fetal Pain Legislation
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Terry Vanderheyden
WASHINGTON, November 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A US House Constitution Subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday to examine information related to fetal pain, and the prospect of introducing legislation to mandate that abortionists inform women of the pain abortion causes to the unborn child during an abortion.
Legislation introduced concurrently in the House by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-New Jersey) and in the Senate by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), both titled the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2005, seeks to mandate that women be notified that an abortion causes pain to her unborn child.
House Committee chairman Steve Chabot of Ohio said, “The American medical community is really behind the times on the research in this area, and in large part it’s because the political debate has so dominated science.” Abortion proponents charge that the legislation is an attempt by lawmakers to restrict abortion through a back-door approach. Chabot admitted that it is. “Until we can get a Supreme Court that is willing to look at this issue and reverse Roe v Wade, there are other things that we can do to help protect unborn, innocent life in this country and this bill is one of those things.”
The Committee heard evidence form several experts in the field, including the head of the Memorial Health University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Savannah, Georgia, Dr. Jean Wright, who said that in her work with infants aged 23 to 40 weeks that they always react to pain. “Studies at 16 weeks and beyond show hormonal responses to painful stimuli that exactly duplicate the responses that the infant and adult possess,” she said.
Dr. Wright added that, unlike young children or adults, “The unborn lacks the ability to modulate itself in response to this pain.” In other words, the unborn actually experiences pain more intensely because of an inability to regulate it.
Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) executive vice president Wendy Wright commended the US Congress for recognizing scientific evidence that confirms that unborn babies experience intense pain when aborted. “Not only do unborn children feel pain, the evidence suggests they feel pain more acutely than at any other stage of life,” she said. “The Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment for the guilty; we should not have a lesser standard for the innocent.”
“Each woman considering an abortion has the right to know the excruciating pain her innocent unborn baby will experience,” Wright added. “In order to make an informed decision on whether to undergo an abortion, mothers should be aware that the 20-week-or-older baby they are carrying will feel agonizing pain.”
According to a report from Family News in Focus, in prior hearings on the subject, testimony from a Planned Parenthood abortuary in San Diego found that virtually all women who were offered information on fetal pain decided to either forgo their abortion or accept an anaesthetic.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Judge asks Abortionist if Dismembering a Live Baby During Partial-Birth Abortion Causes it Pain
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/apr/04040102.htm
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.