Dear Colleague:

Cruelty to animals can land you in jail, cruelty to unborn children can't.
 A bill in Congress would take a step toward granting unborn children
killed in abortion some of the same consideration given animals sent to
slaughter.

Steven W. Mosher
President

PRI Weekly Briefing
1 December 2006
Vol. 8, No. 47


Pro-Abortion Side Considers Children Less Than Animals
By Joseph A. D'Agostino

The culture of death is gearing up to defeat a modest humanitarian
proposal due to be voted on by the U.S. House next week.  This proposal
would merely make anesthesia accessible to unborn children whose mothers
are choosing to abort them and in no way restricts the availability of
abortion.  In fact, it's even up to the aborting mother to decide if an
anesthetic should be used.  Yet this is too much for the pro-abortion
movement.

It's been completely obvious since 1995 that pro-abortion and feminist
groups put inconvenient children below animals in the scheme of existence.
 After all, the partial-birth abortion debate first heated up that year,
and to this day, the abortion movement and its political and media allies
enthusiastically defend the practice of delivering a nine-month-old baby
up to his head and then puncturing his skull in order to suck out his
brain.  Just a few more inches, and the act would be legal murder-and this
in a country where married couples wait years to adopt newborns.

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (HR 6099) would require abortionists
to have an aborting mother with a child at 20 weeks gestation or later
sign a document explaining the likelihood that her unborn child will feel
pain during the abortion, and offering her the option of anesthesia for
her child.  Anesthetics given to aborting mothers have little effect on
unborn children unless the dose is dangerously high, and therefore must be
given to the unborn children directly.  There is solid scientific evidence
that babies feel pain at 20 weeks (perhaps earlier), and even many who say
20 weeks is too early admit that unborn children feel pain beginning at 22
weeks.

D&E abortions are performed as late as 24 weeks.  During a D&E abortion,
an unborn child is dismembered one body part at a time.  You can imagine
how painful that must be.  Instillation abortions are performed even later
in pregnancy.  During an instillation abortion, concentrated salt water is
injected into the womb.  As the salt burns the baby's skin, he or she
inhales the noxious solution until dying up to an hour later.  Imagine
gradually drowning in a sea of acid, and you will understand what happens
to children in this country every day.

Some abortion survivors remain disfigured for life due to contact with
this salt solution in the womb during a botched abortion (a botched
abortion is one in which the baby doesn't die).  If the unborn child is
not a person, how did these people get their burns?

Unfortunately, even though the supposedly pro-life House Republican
leadership continues to control Congress until January, the Unborn Child
Pain Awareness Act will be brought up under special rules that require a
two-thirds vote for it to pass.

"This is common-ground legislation that seeks to provide women with all
the relevant information on the extent of the pain her unborn child will
feel during the procedure and provide her with the option to reduce that
suffering," says Rep. Chris Smith (R.-N.J.), sponsor of the bill.  "This
bill ensures informed consent for women and gives a basic modicum of
protection for the unborn victims of abortions.  It is my hope that my
colleagues will support the middle ground, the view of most Americans, and
vote in favor of this legislation next week."  Sen. Sam Brownback
(R.-Kan.) is ready to press the bill in the Senate if it passes the House.

Of course, pro-lifers hope that some women, upon learning what their
babies could feel, will choose not to have their planned abortions.

By 20 weeks, all the parts of the body needed for a baby to feel pain are
in place.  In fact, there is plenty of evidence that babies feel pain
before 20 weeks.  For example, stress hormones released by 18-week babies
poked by a needle go down in volume when pain-relieving drugs are given.
The partial-birth abortion trials took testimony from abortionists who
themselves said that babies in the second trimester showed signs of
feeling pain while they were being killed.

Of course, the pro-abortion side claims that unborn children do not feel
pain until 29 weeks or later.  Most pro-abortion activists want unborn
children to feel the excruciating pain that our laws forbid us to inflict
on the animals we eat.  As the National Right to Life Committee notes, the
Humane Slaughter Act dictates that animal slaughter is humane only when
"all animals are rendered insensible to pain by a single blow or gunshot
or an electrical, chemical, or other means that is rapid and effective,
before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut."  Too bad that
doesn't apply to the babies slowly drowning in a burning salt solution as
you read this.

Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, Director of the Pain Neurobiology Lab at the
Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, states summarily, "The
human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of
gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly
more intense that that perceived by term newborns or older children."

To its credit, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is not
opposing the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act.  Its president said about an
earlier version of the bill, "Pro-choice Americans have always believed
that women deserve access to all the information relevant to their
reproductive health decisions.  For some women, that includes information
related to fetal anesthesia options."

Democrats, the new masters of Congress, have been casting about for ways
to appear more moderate on abortion.  Several new pro-life Democrats were
elected to Congress this year.  The vote on the Unborn Child Pain
Awareness Act will be a test to see if large numbers of pro-abortion
Democrats are willing to allow unborn children just a little
consideration.


For more information on unborn child pain, go to:
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/index.html


Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the
Population Research Institute.

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