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Babies Feel Pain During Abortions
According to Dr. Paul Ranalli, neurologist at the University of Toronto, unborn babies between 20 and 30 weeks development may actually feel pain more intensely than adults. He says this is a "uniquely vulnerable time, since the pain system is fully established; yet the higher-level pain-modifying system has barely begun to develop." (click here)
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New legislation introduced in Congress will focus on an aspect of abortion that normally receives little attention -- the pain that unborn children feel during an abortion. The bill would make certain that those performing abortions inform women of the pain unborn children experience during an abortion, especially later in pregnancy. The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would specifically require abortion practitioners to tell women having abortions after 20 weeks that the unborn child feels pain. Under the bill, women should be given the opportunity to allow her baby to have pain control drugs administered prior to the abortion.
More Information
The fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. This is probably a conservatively late estimate, but it is scientifically solid. Elements of the pain-conveying system (spino-thalamic system) begin to be assembled at 7 weeks; enough development has occurred by 12-14 weeks that some pain perception is likely, and continues to build through the second trimester. By 20 weeks, the spino- thalamic system is fully established and connected.
Other Resources:
- Babies may feel pain of abortion - The Free Republic
- Aborted Babies Feel Pain - Covenant News
- At 20-Weeks Babies Feel Pain - The Guardian
- Does the fetus feel pain? - Dr. Paul Ranalli
- Fetal pain: An agonizing reality - American Life League
- Does the Fetus Feel Pain? - Stop the Insanity
- Pain and It's Effects In the Human Neonate and Fetus - from the New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 317 No 21 (19 Nov. 1987): Pages 1321-1329.
Update (1-12-2005): Lifesite News - [Late term] Abortionist Timothy Johnson said he was not aware as to whether the child suffered and was unaware of any studies as to whether the fetus feels pain. (HT: Conservative Life)
Add your links in the comments section.
Posted by tim at May 22, 2004 11:25 AM
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