Expert Testimony Before Congress
“It was in the mid-’90’s when I was here and we were discussing that legislation and we began to talk about pain in the third trimester, but now we know that it is not just the third trimester, but it is as early as 20 weeks, and there is data that shows 16 weeks and even earlier, many of these infants feel pain and have negative outcomes from it.”
-Testimony of Jean Wright, Professor And Chair of Pediatrics, Mercer School of Medicine, Pain Of The Unborn Hearing Before The Subcommittee On The Constitution of The Committee On The Judiciary House Of Representatives 109th Cong., 1st Sess. 2005
Full testimony available at: http://ftp.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/109h/24284.pdf
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“Many years of careful research in which I have participated has shown that the neonate, or the fetus, is not a little adult; that the mechanisms and structures used for pain processing are very different at different stages of development. Indeed the nervous system will use the elements available at that time, at a particular stage of development, to transduce external and internal stimuli, and pain is an inherent, innate part of this system.…..My opinion is, based on evidence suggesting that the types of stimulation that will occur during abortion procedures, very likely most fetuses at 20 weeks after conception will be able to perceive that as painful, unpleasant, noxious stimulation.”
-Testimony of Dr. Sunny Anand, Director, Pain Neurobiology Laboratory, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, and Neurobiology, University of Arkansas College of Medicine, Hearing Before The Subcommittee On The Constitution of The Committee On The Judiciary House Of Representatives 109th Cong., 1st Sess. 2005.
Full testimony available at: http://ftp.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/109h/24284.pdf
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An unborn child at 20 weeks gestation “is fully capable of experiencing pain… Without question, [abortion] is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant subjected to such a surgical procedure.”
–Testimony of Robert J. White, MD., Ph.D. professor of neurosurgery, Case Western Reserve University, Hearing on Partial-Birth Abortion Before the Subcomm. on the Constitution of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 105th Cong., 1st Sess., (1995)
Full testimony available here.
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“Finally, I wish to address the fetal pain issue, since it has been claimed that a fetus feels no pain at these gestational ages. This is about as ridiculous as the earlier claim that the anesthesia of partial birth abortion put the baby into a medical coma and killed it prior to the performance of the auctioning technique. This was no small claim to the many pregnant women undergoing non-obstetric surgery every day in this country. Fortunately, this was soundly denounced by both the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Society of Obstetrical Anesthesia and Perinatology. In the course of my practice, we must occasionally perform life-saving procedures on babies while still in the uterus, I have often observed babies of five to six months gestation withdraw from needles and instruments, much like a pain response. Dr. Fisk in England has recently reported an increase in fetal pain response hormones during the course of these procedures at these same gestational ages. In addition, we frequently observe the standard grimaces and withdrawals of neonates born at six months gestation like any other pain response in a more mature infant.”
- Testimony of Curtis Cook, M.D., Maternal Fetal Medicine Butterworth Hospital Michigan State College of Human Medicine, Joint Hearing on “Partial-Birth Abortion: The Truth” Before the Subcomm. on the Constitution of the House Comm. on the Judiciary with the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 105th Cong., 1st Sess., 1996
Full testimony available at: http://judiciary.house.gov/Legacy/22236.htm
