On December 6, the House rejected, 250-162, the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (H.R. 6099). The bill was considered under suspension of the rules and fell 25 votes short of the two-thirds needed for passage. The bill would have required that women in their 20th week of pregnancy be informed that their “unborn child” may experience pain in “the process of being killed in an abortion” before an abortion could be performed. The bill also would have required that the woman be informed that she may request fetal anesthesia, and that she be given a brochure prepared by the Department of Heath and Human Services outlining the possibility of fetal pain.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) said, “While this bill purports to represent the findings of the scientific community, it is merely sensationalistic junk science. This bill would force doctors to violate their Hippocratic Oath by mandating that they provide women with incorrect, unsupported information. It misleads women into believing that they need general anesthesia for an abortion. By glossing over the established risks of general anesthesia, this bill puts women’s health at risk…The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said it best in their statement against this bill: ‘Requiring a physician to provide a patient with information that is not supported by scientific fact violates the established doctrine of medical informed consent.’ As a scientist myself, I am embarrassed that this body would even consider something so egregiously devoid of fact and scientific proof — something that blatantly puts women’s health at risk. But I’m not the only scientist opposed to this bill. The American Academy of Physician Assistants, the American Public Health Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health — to name a few…This bill is nothing but pure political pandering at the expense of science and women’s health. Let’s stop letting politics trump science.”
“It is imperative we take appropriate measures to inform every woman who is seeking an abortion of the development of the unborn child to feel pain in her womb at least 20 weeks after fertilization,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). She continued, saying, “We have taken action to ensure that the pain of livestock and laboratory animals is reduced and prevented, yet when it comes to the unborn child we hesitate. Every day unborn children have pain inflicted upon them, such as poisoning and even dismemberment, when a woman chooses to abort. All of this is without pain medicine. Studies show that fetuses respond to touch by eight weeks’ gestation, and respond to sound by 20 weeks. If an unborn child can recognize the positive and negative stimuli in the womb, I can’t imagine the excruciating pain that must be felt during an abortion. Today women are not fully informed of the extremely painful death their child will endure during an abortion. At a minimum, we must act to ensure that abortion providers are legally obligated to inform every woman about her right to request pain-reducing medicine for her baby. Life is a gift from God and should be respected. I hope my colleagues will join me in recognizing the pain unborn children experience during abortion by supporting this bill.”
