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Majority of Americans Oppose

Late-Term Abortion

Majority of Americans Agree: Ban Late-Term Abortions

Only 10% of Voters Support Abortion Through the 9th Month of Pregnancy

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

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Limit Abortion At or Before 15 Weeks

3 in 4 Women Want to Limit Abortion At or Before 15 Weeks

Permit Abortion up to 9 Months

Scientists Agree: Unborn Babies Can Feel Pain

From as early as 20 weeks the science is clear: Unborn babies can feel pain

They Feel Pain

The idea that unborn and newborn babies cannot feel pain is obsolete, refuted by an extensive and growing body of scientific evidence. The myth that unborn babies cannot feel pain comes from a bygone era when newborns were strapped down for surgery without pain relief.2

As Early as 15 Weeks

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 Give Pain Medication

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

Most Late-Term Abortions are Not Performed in Extreme Circumstances

Most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.5

'Most late term abortions are done for the same social reasons that earlier abortions are done.'

– Dr. Donna Harrison, M.D., Executive Director, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG)

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

These Babies Need Legal Protection

The Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act will protect unborn babies who can feel pain

As early as 12 weeks and certainly by 18 weeks

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

“We would seem to be holding an extraordinary standard if we didn’t infer pain from all those measures.”

Ruth Grunau, pediatric psychologist at the University of British Columbia

(Qiu J, Does it hurt?, Nature 444, 143, 2006)

Fetal reactions provide evidence of pain response

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

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