Democratic Opposition Buries Fetal Pain Bill -- and Along With It, Likely More Babies
by Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
December 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - There's disappointment today in the ranks of the nation's pro-life movement as the House of Representatives has failed to pass a bill that would recognize the pain an unborn baby feels when it is being aborted. An overwhelming number of Democrats led the effort to defeat the bill.The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (H.R. 6099) would require abortionists to inform women seeking abortions late in their pregnancy (20 weeks or more after fertilization) to be told their baby will experience pain. The bill would not require anesthesia; it would, however, protect a doctor's right to inform the woman of any risks to her according to the doctor's own best medical judgment.
A majority of the House actually voted in favor of H.R. 6099 on Wednesday night by a margin of 250-162. However, the measure -- which was introduced by New Jersey's Chris Smith, an outspoken pro-life Republican -- required a two-thirds majority to pass, and the end result was failure. Of the 162 who voted to defeat the measure, 152 were Democrats. Nine Republicans and one Independent joined them. (See complete roll call vote)
The president of Washington, DC-based Concerned Women for America (CWA) was among the many pro-lifers on Capitol Hill who had hoped the House would pass the bill. Wendy Wright says women deserve to know the facts before making a decision that inflicts "extreme pain" on their baby, ending his or her life in a fashion akin to torture.
"Regrettably," says Wright, "congressmen -- many who denounced the use of torture against suspected terrorists -- have voted to not let women know that abortion will torture their innocent unborn babies. Abortion not only kills a baby, it tortures them."
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, says it is no small thing that 60 percent of the House endorsed the bill. But he believes that the other 40 percent "will have to explain why they favor anti-pain laws for animals used for research or food, but not for unborn humans."
CWA's Lanier Swann touches on that same apparent inconsistency. "There are strict federal humane slaughter rules which mandate that animals experience death in the least painful way possible," she says in a press release. "Unborn human babies deserve that courtesy times ten."
Swann contends that fewer women would follow through with plans for an abortion if they simply knew their unborn child would experience excruciating pain. "Evidence shows that the baby feels the pain even more acutely than [does] the mother," she says. "An informed mother might think twice before letting an abortionist inflict this inhumane torture on her child."
The defeat may also raise questions about the sincerity of claims from the Democrats that their party also has family values -- a claim that many voters apparently accepted when the party was lifted to majority status in last month's election.
