In January of 1984, as part of a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters, President Ronald Reagan stated: “When the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain - pain that is long and agonizing.” It was denied by some but was confirmed by a well-documented statement from a group of professors, 26 in all, including pain specialists and two past presidents of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology. They acknowledged that the fetus feels pain as early as 13 weeks after fertilization, some of the articles published at that time identified evidence of pain at 7 weeks.

Beginning their statement with the comment: “As physicians, we are pleased to associate ourselves with you in drawing attention of people across the nation to the humanity and sensitivity of the human unborn.” They concluded: “Mr. President, in drawing attention to the capability of the human fetus to feel pain, you stand on firmly established ground.”

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, proposed in Congress this year, would require that women seeking abortions 20 or more weeks after fertilization be told that the fetus may feel pain and the women may opt for fetal pain treatment. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article on August 24, 2005, claiming that the fetus cannot perceive pain until 29 or 30 weeks of pregnancy. Omitted from the article was the fact that one author, Eleanor Drey, is the director of an abortion clinic, Women’s Options Center, and the lead author, Susan J. Lee, worked for eight months as a lawyer for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, now NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Catherine DeAngelis, editor in chief of JAMA, said neither Lee nor Drey disclosed their abortion-related work or advocacy. Though she wished they had, it would not have influenced her decision to print the report. She acknowledged it might create an appearance of bias that could hurt the journal’s credibility.

The researchers concluded that even if the fetus can feel pain, offering anesthesia or analgesia is not justified because current techniques “provide unknown fetal benefit and may increase risks for women.”

With the outcry over the JAMA article, it remains to be seen if the mainstream media will honestly address the bias of the “researchers” and admit that the preponderance of available research recognizes that abortion is a painful death for the unborn baby at any stage of life. In an essay in Human Life Review in the Spring of 1984, Joseph Sobran wrote about fetal pain. “If pressed,” he said, “it has the power to subvert the whole basis for legal abortion. It forces us to imagine the unborn child as a living creature absolutely distinct from its mother.”

Mary Anne Hackett