PRESS RELEASE

(12/01/2006)

CMA Doctors Urge Passage of Informed Consent Bill on Fetal Pain

Washington,DC, December 1, 2006—The 17,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org ) today urged passage of a federal bill that would inform women considering an abortion about the potential pain experienced by their babies after 20 weeks of development.

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens said, "One thing both sides of this issue should be able to agree upon is that women should be fully informed about the medical science concerning their developing babies. The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act states the medical science and requires that women be fully informed before proceeding with an abortion.

"The scientific findings in this Act are clear and compelling. Women deserve to know exactly what an abortion involves for their baby. Imagine the heartbreak a woman would experience after being led to believe that her 22-week developing baby is simply a 'blob of tissue' only to learn after an abortion that her baby likely experienced excruciating pain. This bill sets the record straight and makes sure women are provided with the facts."

The findings section of the bill reflects testimony by scientific experts including Drs. Kanwdfbet S. Anand and Jeanne Wright. The bill's findings note that "At least by 20 weeks after fertilization, an unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain. There is substantial evidence that by 20 weeks after fertilization, unborn children draw away from certain stimuli in a manner which in an infant or an adult would be interpreted as a response to pain. Anesthesia is routinely administered to unborn children who have developed 20 weeks or more after fertilization who undergo prenatal surgery. There is substantial evidence that the abortion methods most commonly used 20 weeks or more after fertilization cause substantial pain to an unborn child, whether by dismemberment, poisoning, penetrating or crushing the skull, or other methods."

Dr. Gene Rudd, an obstetrician with the CMA, noted, "This bill cites laws protecting animals from inhumane treatment, while a developing human has no such protections. What does this say about our blindness to the humanity of our developing babies?"