It is the opinion of some in the medical field that during an abortion a baby can actually feel the pain.  This year in Indiana, Senate bill 146 will determine whether or not women who are considering abortion will be required to learn about the ability of their baby to feel pain.  (More information about the Indiana bill here.)

At a mere 20 days after conception, the foundations of a baby’s brain, spinal cord, and nervous system are formed.  At 4-5 weeks after conception, before some women even realize they are pregnant, the pain receptors are formed.  That means the baby can feel pain.  Before the mother even thinks about abortion, the baby inside her is growing and developing. 

Mechanisms that inhibit or moderate the experience of pain do not begin to develop until weeks 30-32. Any pain the unborn child experiences before these mechanisms form is likely worse than the pain an older child or adult experiences.

The unborn’s experience of pain may actually be heightened.

How can we as moral and just human beings knowingly subject the future generations of our race to this incomprehensible torture?

There is no way to justify it, except by admitting that we ourselves are either immoral or unjust.

 6 weeks  8 weeks    15 weeks

The (pro-abortion “news” service) Associated Press has an interesting article on a campaign by a pro-life woman to get others to acknowledge the scientific reality that life begins at conception: 

DENVER (AP) — A 20-year-old law student has become a cause celebre in the anti-abortion movement for her efforts to have the state Constitution define fertilized eggs as people — a tactic spreading nationwide in bids to neutralize the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

The measure spearheaded by Kristi Burton would give fertilized eggs state protections of inalienable rights, justice and due process, and she needs 76,000 signatures to get it on the state ballot next November.

Similar efforts are under way in Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi and Oregon.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the awakening of a sleeping giant here as conservatives come out to vote on this because of the purity of the bill and because it’s a no-nonsense amendment,” said Keith Mason, a veteran of grass-roots efforts defending Ten Commandments displays and parental notification laws. He is helping the petition effort.

Burton’s so-called human life amendment doesn’t mention abortion. She insists her only aim is to define when human life begins, and any discussion about abortion is up to lawmakers, she said.

“It’s a concrete point in time that we can point to. It’s at the moment of conception, life begins and at that moment we need to protect it. If we don’t do that, then anyone can take away people’s lives at other stages,” Burton said.