"Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions.[snip...]
The finding poses a direct challenge to proposed federal and state laws that would compel doctors to tell women having abortions at 20 weeks or later that their fetuses can feel pain and to offer them anesthesia specifically for the fetus." (my own emphasis added)
GAH! This kind of thing makes me so angry. It's irrational - they aren't proposing that fetusus be given anesthesia during birth. I can't imagine that having your head squeezed through a tiny tube, and your shoulders managled, and then your umbilical cord cut off feels real nice either.
All this is trying to do is scare and put more guilt on those poor women trying to get those later-term abortions. We're talking 1.4% of the total abortions done in the US. These are women into their second trimester. Aren't they going through enough if they realize they can't keep the baby by now? I seem to remember reading studies that said most of the abortions done after week 20 are only medically necessary ones, since it's so much harder on the mother.
Hopefully this finding will make it easier to shoot down this bill. Thank the Gods scientists are still conducting this kind of research.
Now pardon me while I dig out my "US Out of My Uterus" stickers.
