Prepared Floor Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
on H.R. 36, Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
Monday, September 21, 2015
Mr. President, the Pope’s visit this week to the nation’s capital reminds us all of how important it is to show compassion and concern for the most innocent and vulnerable among us. Unborn children, who fall into this category, are entitled to the same dignity which all human beings share. This is true even when their presence might be uncomfortable or create difficulties, the Pope reminds us.
We are now considering moving to a bill known as the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This legislation would make no change to our abortion policy in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. At 20 weeks fetal age, when the unborn child can detect and respond to painful stimuli, the bill would impose some restrictions on elective, late term abortions. Such a change to existing law would put us in line with the vast majority of other countries across the globe.
I want to emphasize that the United States is in the small minority of countries around the world that allow abortion on demand after the fifth month of pregnancy. As Senator Cornyn mentioned earlier, we are just one of seven countries that take this unusual position. China, North Korea, and Vietnam are among the other seven. Are these countries really the ones we want to align ourselves with on this particular human rights issue?
Many of us in this chamber actively supported the Americans with Disabilities Act. Could anyone here support an abortion after five months because the unborn baby has a cleft lip? What about a late term abortion of a baby with hemophilia? Under current law, it is quite possible to destroy unborn babies with these, or other, more serious abnormalities in utero. I believe that these babies’ lives have the same value as those of other unborn babies without disabilities.
There are some who say they cannot support this legislation. If you do not support restrictions on abortion after the fifth month of pregnancy, when some babies born prematurely at this stage now are surviving long-term, then what exactly is your limit?
Scientists say the unborn child can feel pain, perhaps even as early as eight weeks and most certainly by 20 weeks fetal age. The American people overwhelmingly support restrictions on late term abortions. And doctors tell us that about a quarter of the babies born prematurely around five months will survive long term, if given active medical assistance.
For example, Dr. Colleen Malloy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern’s School of Medicine, testified before a congressional panel in 2012 that infants born at 20 weeks fetal age now are “kicking, moving, reacting and developing right before our eyes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.” She explained that treatment of neonatal pain is standard in such cases, and added that there’s no reason to believe that an infant born prematurely would feel pain any differently than the same infant if still in the womb.
We also have the statements of Dr. Anthony Levatino, a practicing gynecologist with decades of experience. Dr. Levatino estimates that he performed over a thousand abortions in private practice, until his adopted daughter died in a car crash. The death of his child was a life-changing event that ultimately led him to stop performing abortions.
Dr. Levatino testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2012 that performing an abortion on a 24-week old child is painful for that unborn baby. In the words of Dr. Levatino, and I quote: “If you refuse to believe that this procedure inflicts severe pain on that unborn child, please think again.”
Scientific studies confirm what Dr. Levatino has noted, that the unborn can experience pain after the fifth month. In fact, at least one medical school professor says it’s indisputable that unborn babies can react to painful stimuli as early as eight weeks after conception.
Dr. Maureen Condic, a neurobiology professor who earned her Ph.D. at Berkeley, explains that the unborn child at this stage of development reacts to painful stimuli just as other human beings do at later stages. In both the case of the unborn child and human beings at later stages of development, the response is the same: to actively withdraw from the painful stimulus.
As stated in a paper written by Dr. Condic: “The scientific evidence that the human fetus can detect and react to painful stimuli as early as eight weeks…is indisputable. The neural circuitry responsible for the most primitive response to pain, the spinal reflex, is in place by eight weeks…. Connections between the spinal cord and the thalamus, the region of the brain that is largely responsible for pain perception in both the fetus and the adult, begin to form around 12 weeks, and are completed by 18 weeks.”
Babies delivered prematurely also show pain-related behaviors, according to Dr. Condic. Also, the earlier infants are delivered, the stronger their response to pain, she reports.
It is perhaps for this reason that many doctors use anesthesia when operating on late term babies in utero. Research suggests that these babies do better and recover faster when anesthesia is used during in utero surgery.
Many expectant mothers today are encouraged to talk to their babies in utero or play soft music for the babies’ benefit. Unborn babies can hear as early as the fifth month and find their mom’s voice soothing, new research suggests. Babies even learn while in the womb, absorbing language earlier than previously suspected, according to another report. Regardless of whether you characterize yourself as pro-choice or pro-life, common sense tells us that if such techniques work to soothe the unborn baby, then the reverse likely is true as well. Late in pregnancy, unborn babies aren’t impervious to dismemberment with steel tools in utero.
Some say that abortion saves lives and helps women. Remember that five years ago, a woman walked into a Pennsylvania abortion clinic expecting that she’d have her pregnancy terminated and would walk out of that clinic without major side effects. She was 41 years old and 19 weeks pregnant. She had three children and was a grandmother. She and her daughter entered the clinic, but she never made it out alive. Her name was Karnamaya Mongar. She was one of the many victims of Kermit Gosnell.
Kermit Gosnell operated a clinic in West Philadelphia for four decades. He made a living by performing abortions that no other doctor should ever do. The Grand Jury report that framed the case around Kermit Gosnell stated, “Gosnell’s approach was simple: keep volume high, expenses low – and break the law. That was his competitive edge.”
Also, according to the Grand Jury report: “The bigger the baby, the bigger the charge. Ultrasounds were forged so that the government would never know how old aborted babies truly were. Babies were born alive, killed after breathing on their own, by sticking scissors into the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord. These were live, breathing, squirming babies.”
He didn’t care about the wellbeing of these aborted babies. He didn’t care about the health of the women.
Extremely experienced doctors, like Dr. Levatino, who I mentioned earlier, also tell us that abortion is “seldom if ever a useful intervention” when life threatening conditions require immediate care late in pregnancy. In most of these late second and third trimester cases, any attempt to perform an abortion “would entail undue and dangerous delay in providing appropriate, truly life-saving care.” The number of babies whose lives Dr. Levatino had to terminate in such cases was zero, he testified.
Mr. President, the bill before us is a common sense measure aimed at protecting women and children across the country. I urge my colleagues to embrace the sanctity of human life and vote to move to this bill, so it can at least be considered.
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