By Dave Andrusko
Ingrid Duran, NRLC’s talented director of State Legislation, is kind of to routinely take time out of her hectic schedule to continually keep me updated on what’s happening in the state legislatures.
For example, North Carolina’s House will be voting on a Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act today. It has already passed the Senate 28-19. Montana’s version passed the Senate 32-18 and there will likely be a vote on the measure in the House today.
Meanwhile in late March, Montana’s House passed its Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, 59-39 and last week a Senate committee did likewise, 6-4. In Missouri, an omnibus bill that has a pain-capable component roared through the House by a vote of 117 to 39. Last week a Senate committee voted to move the bill to the full Senate.
Just a quick few words about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which has been part of the pro-life protective arsenal for years. If you were to follow the pages of pro-abortion criticisms, you would see they are ripped from the same playbook.
For instance, you’ll hear the unborn can’t experience pain until the very end of the second trimester (usually even later) or perhaps not until birth. This is so counter-intuitive, I suspect if they were capable of it, they’d blush.
Citing credentialed medical authorities and much research, NRLC has repeatedly pointed out that by 20 weeks after fertilization, all the physical structures necessary to experience pain have developed. Unborn children at 20 weeks fetal age react to painful stimuli, and their hormonal reactions consistent with pain can be measured.
For the purposes of surgery on unborn children, fetal anesthesia is routinely administered and is associated with a decrease in stress hormones compared to their level when painful stimuli are applied without such anesthesia.
In introducing the legislation into the Senate on April 9, Sen. Lindsey Graham observed
In 2019, because of the advancement of medical science, we know an unborn child in the fifth month of the birthing process can recognize sounds, has ten fingers and ten toes, can stretch, can yawn, and can feel pain. It is up to people in legislative bodies to come to their aid and prevent an excruciating death and have exceptions that make sense.
By the end of the week, if not sooner, I hope to be able to report passage in additional states of legislation to protect pain-capable unborn children from the violence of abortion.