New bill requires evidence of abortion’s pain in unborn
- May 31, 2004 -
Pro-life members of Congress have opened a new front in the conflict over abortion.
New legislation has been introduced that would require abortion doctors to inform a woman who is 20 weeks pregnant of the medical evidence her unborn child can feel pain during the life-ending procedure, it was announced May 20. If the woman still chooses to have an abortion, the doctor would be required to offer her anesthesia for the unborn child.
Introduction of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, S. 2466 and H.R. 4420, came only a few weeks after a medical specialist testified in federal court that an unborn child feels pain by the 20th week of gestation.
“The very least that any civilized people can do is minimize the pain and suffering of the smallest and most defenseless human beings among them as their lives are being violently stolen,” ERLC President Richard Land said. “We cannot imagine that anyone but the most calloused could possibly be opposed to this humanitarian bill. So we look forward to its quick passage.”
Its support for the bill signals no wavering in the ERLC’s “conviction that abortion at any stage ends the life of an innocent human being,” Land said.
“[W]e work and pray for the day when our nation restores legal protections to the unborn,” he said. “Until then we agree with Senator Brownback that respect for the sanctity of human life compels us to do all we can to extend as much mercy as possible to the unborn while their little bodies are being abused and brutalized during the gruesome abortion process.”
Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., is the sponsor of the Senate version, while Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., is the House sponsor.