Judge in Partial-Birth Abortion Case Rules Doctor May Testify Pre-born Baby Feels Pain

NEW YORK, March 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In another small victory for the defense, the federal judge hearing the partial-birth abortion ban challenge has ruled that he will allow the testimony of a physician who claims that a pre-born baby can experience pain.  U.S. District Judge Richard Conway Casey denied the Planned Parenthood abortionist’s demand to block the testimony of Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, a pediatric specialist. Anand claims that a baby experiences pain by 20 weeks gestation. Judge Casey said that Anand “will assist the court in assessing the reasonableness of Congress’ factual findings that partial-birth abortion is a brutal and inhumane procedure.”  In his decision announced Monday, Judge Casey said that “Dr. Anand’s opinion is based on anatomical, functional, physiological and behavioral indicators that are correlated with pain. His extensive experience and research … is sufficiently reliable,” he stated.  Judge Casey is to begin hearing testimony in the case next week. The suit is a challenge of the constitutionality of the partial-birth abortion ban introduced last year by President George W. Bush. The National Abortion Federation, seven Planned Parenthood doctors in association with the ACLU argue that the grisly procedure is necessary for the health of some expectant mothers.  Read the October 2000 Interim article which revealed how English pro-abortion doctor Vivette Glover recommended that “all terminations [abortions] between 17 and 24 weeks be performed under anaesthetic,” after recognizing the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, at: https://www.theinterim.com/2000/oct/14fetalpain.html   Also the LifeSiteNews.com report of research conducted at University College London (UCL) revealing that babies in the womb not only feel pain but are more sensitive to pain than adults and older children thus feeling pain more intensely and for a longer duration.  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/aug/98081102.html   And the LifeSiteNews.com report about pediatric anesthesiologist Jean Wright, M.D., who wrote a paper explaining the physiology of fetal pain: “Newborns not only feel pain,” she wrote, “they react to pain with 3-5 times the response of adults,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jun/020620.html