S.356
Title: A bill to ensure that women seeking an abortion are fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child.
Sponsor: Sen Brownback, Sam [KS] (introduced 1/22/2007) Cosponsors (28)
Latest Major Action: 1/22/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
This bill would require doctors to read a standard statement about a fetus' capacity to experience pain to women about to undergo abortions.
According to Women's eNews, one of the main proponents of a former version of this bill, Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, admitted that there is not clear proof of fetal pain:
"When he was under oath, Anand acknowledged that it is actually not possible to measure whether a fetus experiences pain and that not all doctors share his view that fetuses can experience pain after 20 weeks gestation. He acknowledged that Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in London had studied the topic and reported that a fetus cannot experience pain until 26 weeks when nerve and brain structures are more fully developed."