Currently, individual states arbitrate how far into pregnancy second- and third-trimester abortions can be committed on their preborn children. In at least 32 states, babies older than 20 weeks gestation can be killed, despite nearly-undisputed evidence that children feel the excruciating pain of abortion by 20 weeks or earlier. This means that every day in America, children in utero can feel the excruciating pain of dismemberment when they are torn limb-from-limb out of their mother’s wombs. Today, the U.S. House will vote on a bill called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act– legislation that would prohibit the killing of preborn children 20 weeks and older in every state.
In January, the legislation was derailed by a rogue “Pro-Life” legislator, Renee Ellmers, who prevented the bill from seeing success during the 42nd anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion on-demand in America in 1973. But Stalwart Pro-Life legislators, including Representative Trent Franks (R – AZ), Representative Diane Black (R – TN), Representative Vicky Hartzler (R – MO), Representative Joe Pitts (R – PA), and Representative Chris Smith (R – NJ), pressed forward and succeeded in bringing the bill before the U.S. House of Representatives for today’s vote, which takes place on the 2nd anniversary of the conviction of murderer-abortionist Kermit Gosnell of Philadelphia. Gosnell killed babies at and beyond Pennsylvania’s 24-week abortion limit, and when his shoddy abortion methods failed, Gosnell killed the babies born alive in his House of Horrors by snipping their spinal cords with scissors.
Fetal neurology suggests that abortion is an unimaginably horrific experience for preborn children, who recoil from sharp objects introduced into the womb as early as eight weeks. By 20 weeks, the science indicating that preborn children feel pain is nearly undisputed. In fact, until the baby is almost full-term, he does not possess the neurological inhibitors which control his perception of pain, suggesting that the experience of pain is more intense for a child in the womb than for a newborn or older person.
In her testimony before Congress, Dr. Maureen Condic (a professor of neurobiology and pediatrics in Utah), explained that preborn children much younger than 20 weeks gestation are capable of mature pain perception, and concluded her well-researched testimony by appealing to the humanity of legislators:
You know, we’re all horrified by the pictures of the infants that were brutally killed by convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell. And yet we tolerate the same brutality – and even worse – for humans at 20 weeks of development. Imposing pain on any pain-capable living creature is cruelty, and ignoring the pain experienced by another human for any reason is barbaric. We don’t need to know if a fetus experiences pain precisely in the same way we do. We simply have to decide whether we’re going to choose to ignore the pain of the fetus, or not. It is entirely uncontested in the scientific and medical literature that the fetus experiences pain in some capacity from as early as eight weeks.
Dr. Condic aptly noted that the decision at stake is “what kind of a society we want to be.” Will America remain a society in which preborn children scientifically-proven to be capable of pain are allowed to be brutalized by the very professionals we trust to provide “health care”? Or, will America look with compassion on the most innocent members of our community and offer them the fundamental Right to Life and protection from brutality? Today’s vote will be an historic indication of America’s future.
Tweet with the hash tags #HR36 and #TheyFeelPain to support today’s legislation.
