Home | Contact Us | Newsletters

Co-sponsors Senator Sam Brownback  (R, KS) and Rep. Chris Smith (R, NJ)  have introduced an  “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act”  in the US Congress.  Based on growing scientific evidence that a fetus does feel pain, the bill would require doctors to inform women seeking abortions that the procedure will  cause pain to their unborn child. It would give a woman the option of providing anesthesia to her unborn child.

Rep. Smith quoted  highly qualified physician and researcher Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, director  of the Pain Neurobiology Laboratory at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, who  testified April 15 before the Northern District of the U.S. District Circuit Court in California  during the Partial-Birth Abortion trials. Dr Anand stated flatly, "The human fetus possesses the  ability to experience pain from 20-weeks gestation if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is  possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children." He noted, "The  highest density of pain receptors per square inch of skin in human development occurs in utero from 20 to 30 weeks gestation. During this period, the epidermis is still very thin, leaving nerve fibers closer to the surface of the skin than in older neonates and adults. " Dr. Anand, who has studied the subject for over 20 years, also addressed the question of fetal consciousness, saying  "More than three decades of research shows that preterm infants are actively perceiving  learning, and organizing information, and are constantly striving to regulate themselves, their  environment and their experiences. All preterm infants actively approach and favor experiences  that are developmentally supporting and actively avoid experiences that are developmentally  disruptive."