Monday, June 24, 2002

** Christian Medical Association: Partial-Birth Abortion Inflicts Horrific Pain on Unborn **

A 16,000-member professional association of doctors says that legislation to ban partial-birth abortion is needed to stop a barbaric practice that inflicts horrific pain on developing infants. The Christian Medical Association expressed its support for the bipartisan Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2002, which was highlighted last week at a Capitol press conference held by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and others.

David Stevens, MD, Executive Director of the Christian Medical Association, noted, "Inflicting pain on developing infants such as that incurred during a partial-birth abortion would never be countenanced by any medical review team for human experimentation. There is absolutely no medical reason whatsoever that justifies allowing an abortionist to cut into the cranium of a developing baby, inflict a horrific level of pain, and then suction out its brain," asserted Stevens.

Stevens cited the congressional testimony of CMA board member and pediatric anesthesiologist Jean Wright, MD, who testified that a fetus experiences pain at a level several times greater than adults experience. In a CMA white paper explaining the physiology of fetal pain perception, Dr. Wright writes, "Newborns not only feel pain; they react to pain with 3 - 5 times the response of adults."