The Utah State Senate approved a bill mandating anesthesia for babies being aborted after 20 weeks gestation on Monday, sending the bill to the Utah House.
If Utah Senate Bill 234 becomes law, it would require anesthesia for all elective abortions in cases where the mother and unborn child are healthy; an exception would be allowed in cases where the anesthesia could endanger the health of the mother, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.
The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Bill Bramble, who is pro-life, said when an abortion is performed measures should be made to reduce unnecessary suffering.
“If we could prohibit all abortions except in the rarest of circumstances, if we could overturn Roe v. Wade, I would be a proud sponsor of that bill,” Bramble said.
Before initial debate on the bill last Friday, Planned Parenthood staged a protest with signs reading “Keep Politics Out of the Exam Room” and “Senator Bramble Is NOT My Doctor,” according to the report.
However, as previously reported on LifeNews, there is some debate even within the pro-life community about the message of such bills.
Pro-lifers agree on the fact that unborn babies feel pain, a reality of abortion that has been previously reported at LifeNews. Dr. David Prentice of the Charlotte Lozier Institute said science conclusively shows that “young babies still in the womb at 20 weeks after conception, and probably even earlier, do indeed feel pain, and in fact, may feel more intense pain than a newborn or an adult.”
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Prentice explained that unborn babies may feel excruciating pain during abortions because they have a high density of nerve receptors but lack pathways to tone down pain.
Some studies show unborn babies feel pain even earlier than 20 weeks after conception. As early as eighteen weeks, an unborn child injected with a needle releases stress hormones, just as adults do when experiencing pain. Hormone levels in those babies decrease when pain-relievers are supplied, LifeNews previously reported.
However, some pro-lifers argue that methods of making abortion more humane and acceptable miss the point, since a painless killing still results in death. Other pro-lifers argue that as long as abortion is legal, the baby should be spared unnecessary pain.
More than 18,000 ‘very late term’ abortions are performed every year on perfectly healthy unborn babies in America, and many states have introduced bills to protect them from painful, late-term abortions. According to the National Right to Life Committee, at least 12 states have passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to protect unborn babies from abortions after 20 weeks because they can feel pain. Bills also have been introduced in several other states and in U.S. Congress.
A national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30% said they would oppose such a law.
A November 2014 poll from Quinnipiac found that 60 percent of Americans support legislation limiting abortions after 20 weeks, including 56 percent of Independents and 46 percent of Democrats.
A similar measure was passed in Montana in 2015 but was vetoed by the state’s Democratic governor.
