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FIRST-PERSON: Fetal Pain: painting a legislative picture


DALLAS (BP)–The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” has proven to be true in the battle over abortion. The picture, painted by the decade-plus-long battle to ban the heinous procedure known as partial-birth abortion, has changed the debate.

Americans are polling increasingly pro-life partly because we’ve had a gruesome demonstration of the baby who — under current law — can legally be murdered as long as his or her foot remains in the birth canal. The Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the federal ban on partial-birth abortion will be announced next year, and hopefully that will put an end to these murders. But in the quest to end all abortions, it is necessary to continue painting pictures. Before ending the 109th Congress, members of the House of Representatives got out their art supplies once again.

The December vote on the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act was taken under an expedited calendar, which allowed only 20 minutes of debate and required a two-thirds majority for passage. The legislation stated that abortion providers must notify women who are 20 or more weeks pregnant that their unborn child may feel pain when aborted. In addition the mother, if she were to go ahead with the procedure, would be required to sign a statement stating she had been offered anesthesia for her child. The 250-162 vote for the bill was 25 short of the number needed under the special rules, although its sponsor, pro-life warrior Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.), was encouraged.

He saw the result as “proof-positive that we can pass this legislation despite the unwillingness of some extreme pro-abortion members of Congress.” Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, pointed out that 60 percent of the House supported this bill, calling the outcome “no small thing.”

Indeed, this pain is no small thing. Our laws forbid us to allow the animals we eat to experience it. The Humane Slaughter Act dictates that animal slaughter is humane only when the animal is rendered insensible to pain by a single blow, or gunshot, or an electrical, chemical, or other means that is rapid and effective. Partial-birth abortion involves stabbing the almost-born child in the back of the neck and sucking out the brains. Another abortion procedure known as dilation and extraction (D&E) is used as late as 24 weeks and consists of dismembering the child, pulling the parts from the uterus one by one. A third procedure, instillation abortion, involves the injection of concentrated salt water into the womb, with the accompanying burning of the baby’s skin and internal organs.

Fetal pain during abortion was considered during the debate over the ban on partial birth abortion and received significant attention in the three lawsuits challenging it. Texas Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican and a medical doctor, addressed the House in March 2003, pointing out that male babies are given anesthesia before being circumcised.

“[I]t would be unthinkable to perform that procedure without some type of anesthesia, because we all know that a newborn feels pain,” he said. “But we are asked to discount the possibility of fetal pain perception when dealing with the language of partial-birth abortion.”

Refusing to discount that possibility, Judge Richard Casey, the presiding judge in the New York federal court that heard a legal challenge, asked abortionist Timothy Johnson if the fetus felt pain and if the infant’s pain ever “cross[es] your mind when you do a dismemberment.” Johnson replied “no.”

But neo-natal pediatrician and pain expert Kanwaljeet Anand testified during a federal trial held in Lincoln, Neb. that unborn babies feel “excruciating pain” during all stages of partial-birth abortion including the handling of the fetus in the womb, delivering the child up to its head, puncturing the skull and sucking out the brains. Anand, Oxford and Harvard-trained, is now director of the pain neurology lab at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute. He says he personally believes women have a right to abortion except in the case of fetal pain.

Anand testified in Casey’s courtroom for 20 hours, revealing that unborn children feel pain more acutely than adults or even infants. Unborn children at 20 weeks, he said, have developed the sensory nerves, skin receptors and brain stem required to feel pain. Studies have demonstrated unborn babies display pain physiologically, exhibiting an increased heart rate and the secretion of stress hormones. But according to Anand, unborn babies lack the coping mechanisms that enable adults and infants to deal with pain.

There are pro-life critics of the attempt to address fetal pain in Congress; they argue that allowing a mother to provide anesthesia for her pre-born child will make it easier for her to choose abortion. That position underestimates the power of the picture of an unborn baby recoiling from abortion-induced pain. When abortion-minded mothers are presented with that picture, some may reconsider. And a congressional debate over a fetal pain bill will force the public to look at the picture just as the battle to ban partial birth abortion has done.

Even though the newly elected House contains fewer pro-life lawmakers than the current one, under normal rules, a bill acknowledging that the unborn baby feels pain would pass. Senator Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., has promised to introduce similar legislation in the Senate. Members of the 110th Congress can and should get their paintbrushes out again and paint another graphic picture portraying the humanity of the unborn baby for the American people.
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Penna Dexter is a board of trustee member with the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, a conservative activist and an announcer on the syndicated radio program “Life on the Line” (information available at www.lifeontheline.com). She currently serves as a consultant for KMA Direct Communications in Plano, Texas, and as a co-host of “Jerry Johnson Live,” a production of Criswell Communications. She formerly was a co-host of Marlin Maddoux’s “Point of View” syndicated radio program.

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  • Penna Dexter