Yesterday the House voted on the D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion in the nation’s capital after 20 weeks of gestation, the point during pregnancy at which research shows the unborn baby can feel pain.
While a majority voted in favor of the bill, 220 to 154, it did not gain the support of a 2/3 majority. SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser stated in response to the decision, “Tonight, 154 members of Congress endorsed an absolutist policy of abortion on-demand, for any reason, up to the moment of birth.”
Numerous studies have been conducted on the ability of the fetus to feel pain. Anesthesiologist Dr. Jean Wright stated that an “unborn fetus after 20 weeks of gestation has all the prerequisite anatomy, physiology, hormones, neurotransmitters, and electrical current to close the loop and create the conditions needed to perceive pain.”
In addition, Professor and Pediatrician Kanwaljeet Anand, after working with preborn and premature infants who have undergone fetal surgery, found that those not anesthetized, even if only at 22 weeks gestation, had a much lower survival rate. In response to being surgically operated on, their small bodies produced increased levels of “fight or flight” hormones, such as adrenaline, that cause a person high levels of stress. These infants literally fight for their life in the operating room.
Many claim that abortion is a safe procedure, the availability of which is absolutely necessary, even beneficial to women’s health. While we know, as evidenced by the recent death of Tonya Reaves, that this is not always the case, we also cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence that abortion simultaneously causes a mother’s unborn baby severe pain. Truly, Marjorie pointed out the Representatives who opposed the bill last night “are out of step with the majority of Americans who support protecting unborn children capable of feeling the excruciating pain of an abortionist’s instruments.”
You pop an Advil when you have a headache. An unborn baby undergoes surgical destruction without any numbing medication, nor sympathy. Does that hurt?
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