Pain experienced by the unborn child has been under medical and legal discussion for more than two decades. Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan told the National Religious Broadcasters Convention that the unborn “often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing” when undergoing abortion. Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s film, The Silent Scream, graphically showed the reaction of an actual baby in the process of being aborted. While this has brought public attention to the issue, medical researchers studying the science of fetal pain have argued about just when the unborn baby can actually recognize and feel pain.

In Great Britain, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a report from its Working Party on Fetal Awareness in 1997, recommending that fetal analgesia or sedation be considered for surgical procedures directly on the fetus or for termination of pregnancy at 24 weeks or later. As a result of a British Department of Health review two years later, there were efforts to move the recommendation back to 20 weeks. Although there is now general agreement that babies are capable of experiencing pain at least by the twentieth week of gestation, some experts believe pain perception is possible as early as twelve weeks. (For further background, see Science and Fetal Pain in the August 2003 issue of the Lifesaver.)

The Virginia General Assembly will be considering this issue this session. Lawmakers are looking at two approaches to fetal pain. One would deal with anesthetizing the baby prior to an abortion when the baby was older than a certain gestational age, such as twelve weeks. The other would add information on the likelihood of pain to her baby as part of the informed consent information currently required to be made available to pregnant women prior to an abortion.

VSHL will be following this issue and, as always, will be sending out legislative alerts via email during the session. You can get on the list by sending a request to vshl67@verizon.net.

How to Contact Your Legislators

• Telephone: 1-800-889-0229 to send a message to delegates or senators.
• General Assembly Web Site: legis.state.va.us has direct phone numbers and email addresses for all legislators. If needed, click on “Who’s My Legislator” to find out who your legislators are.

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, January 2004