CMA Doctors Cite Baby's Pain and Consciousness in Hailing Vote to Ban Partial-Birth Abortions

Washington, DC, - The nation's largest faith-based organization of physicians recently cited medical and moral reasons for passing a ban on partial-birth abortion, approved in March, by the U.S. Senate, on a 65-32 vote.

"Medical experts have testified time and again that partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary," noted Gene Rudd, MD, Associate Executive Director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association. "The vast majority of Americans oppose this barbaric procedure as immoral. And medical evidence indicates that a partial-birth abortion inflicts cruel and horrific pain on a conscious baby."

Dr. Rudd, an obstetrician-gynecologist, said, "The Senate's vote to ban partial-birth abortion comes on the heels of a report by one of Britain's leading brain scientists that long before 24 weeks, (the legal age limit for abortions in England), the human fetus may develop consciousness. Congressional testimony by U.S. experts indicates that sensory perception appears on the face of the human fetus in the seventh week of development, and over their entire body by the 20th week. Furthermore, studies reveal that newborns not only feel pain; they react to pain with three to five times more sensitivity than adults.

"What this medical evidence means is that a baby subjected to a partial-birth abortion would consciously experience horrific pain. The partial-birth abortion procedure inflicts inhumanity upon the unborn. The infant experiences a most cruel form of pain during the procedure. This type of behavior towards animals in experiments would not be tolerated. Unless our laws restrict this brutal procedure, such unconscionable pain will continue to be inflicted on developing human babies.

"Hopefully, as we act to prevent this particular method of abortion, it may also awaken our society to the value of all life, born and unborn."

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