ON THE UNBORN CHILD PAIN AWARENESS ACT
TAKE ACTION NOW!
This is an update from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), issued Tuesday, December 5, 2006, at 11 AM EST. For further information on this issue, contact the NRLC Federal Legislation Department at 202-626-8820 or Legfederal@aol.com. Please forward this e-mail to any appropriate lists.
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (H.R. 6099) on the morning of Wednesday, December 6, 2006.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), will be considered under a fast-track procedure ("suspension of the rules"), under which no amendments will be considered, and a two-thirds vote is required for passage. If the House passes the bill by the required two-thirds vote, Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) has said that he will seek unanimous consent to pass the bill in the Senate as well.
The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act is strongly supported by NRLC. Among the other organizations urging the House to pass the bill are the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the Christian Medical Association, the Southern Baptist Convention (Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission), and Priests for Life.
To take immediate action in support of this bill by using the new "Call Now" feature on the NRLC website's Legislative Action Center, click here.
Here are some additional links to resources on this issue that you may find useful:
* An NRLC letter to House members (November 27) explaining the legislation and urging support, here.
* An article in today's Washington Post on the imminent House vote, here. Note especially this excerpt from the article: "[Democratic] Party leaders in the House have declared tomorrow's decision 'a vote of conscience' and will not try to sway the outcome. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not plan to speak on the bill, a rarity for her. . . . While the measure has provoked strong opposition from Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, perhaps the nation's leading abortion rights group, has stayed neutral. . . . Democratic leaders cited NARAL's position when they decided against trying to influence the vote. Democratic leadership aides said yesterday that they are leery of Republicans charging that they are already out of touch with mainstream values, even before they assume power."
* An NRLC factsheet summarizing the science on fetal pain, here (PDF file).
* An NRLC memo rebutting an article on fetal pain published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in August 2005, here. The JAMA article, often cited by opponents of the bill, claimed that available research suggests that the human fetus does not experience pain until about 29 weeks. As the NRLC memo and the linked documents demonstrate, the JAMA paper has been contradicted by some highly credentialed authorities in the field, and is inconsistent with longstanding observations and treatment of newborns who survive long-term after being born as early as 23 weeks. Moreover, the lead author of the JAMA article, a medical student, was previously an attorney for NARAL, and one of the other authors is a longtime activist who runs the largest abortion clinic in San Francisco, performs hundreds of late abortions every year, and has been a leading critic of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. According to an article by the medical writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, who brought these associations to the attention of the JAMA editor after JAMA published the paper, "JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine D. DeAngelis said she was unaware of this, and acknowledged it might create an appearance of bias that could hurt the journal's credibility. 'This is the first I've heard about it,' she said. 'We ask them to reveal any conflict of interest. I would have published' the disclosure if it had been made."