Majority of Americans Oppose
A June, 2022 Harvard/Harris poll found 72% of voters believe abortion should be limited at 15 weeks of pregnancy or earlier. 18% said it should be allowed until 23 weeks. Only 10% said abortions should be permitted up until the ninth month of pregnancy. 1
The published scientific literature shows that unborn babies can experience pain at 15 weeks gestational age (15 weeks LMP, since Last Menstrual Period, the fetal age estimate used by most obstetricians) or earlier.3
Fetal surgeons recognize unborn babies as patients. The growth in maternal-fetal medicine recognizes this acceptance. Since the first fetal surgery performed in 1981 in the United States, the number of centers devoted to fetal surgeries has grown until today (in 2022), there are 37 medical centers in the United States that perform advanced in-utero fetal therapeutic procedures.4
Defenders of late-term abortion often claim that late-term abortions are “almost always” carried out in extreme circumstances — cases of severe fetal abnormality or danger to the mother’s life. However this is not the case. A 2013 study in the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute’s journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health found “data suggests that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.”6 One of the study’s authors, Dr. Diana Greene Foster, is also cited in a 2018 report for the Congressional Research Service: abortions for fetal anomaly “make up a small minority of later abortion” and those for life endangerment are even harder to characterize.7
A comprehensive review of the scientific literature points out that a fetus may not experience pain in the same way as an adult, but does indeed experience pain as a real sensation, and that this pain experience has moral implications. This review of the scientific evidence and agreement on existence of fetal pain, as early as 12 weeks and certainly by 18 weeks, comes from two highly credentialed medical professionals, one pro-choice.8
The unborn baby reacts to noxious stimuli with avoidance reactions and stress responses. As early as 8 weeks, the baby exhibits reflex movement during invasive procedures. The application of painful stimuli to an unborn child is associated with significant increases in stress hormones in the unborn child, known as the stress response. In fact, evidence indicates that subjection to painful stimuli as a fetus is associated with long-term harmful neurodevelopmental effects. 9
