The precise gestational age at which human fetuses can feel pain has been a subject of strenuous debate.
Some researchers continue to argue that unborn human beings can’t feel pain before about 24 weeks gestation. However, a recent analysis of the available data and scientific literature indicates that they can feel pain at just 15 weeks gestation or even earlier, The Charlotte Lozier Institute has pointed out.
Board-certified neonatologist Dr. Robin Pierucci, M.D., said “[t]he idea that unborn babies don’t feel pain is rooted in a bygone era when newborns were actually operated on without anesthesia or pain relief.”
Taking issue with the claim that a fetus can’t feel pain until about 24 weeks gestation, Dr. Pierucci said that’s an “outdated belief” that “abortion advocates and their political allies continue to cling to.” She noted that “an objective visit to a NICU easily proves otherwise.”
In their peer-reviewed comprehensive review published in the BMJ’s Journal of Medical Ethics in January, 2020, researchers stated that they “no longer view fetal pain (as a core, immediate, sensation) in a gestational window of 12–24 weeks as impossible based on the neuroscience.”
The article, co-authored by pro-choice professor Stuart WG Derbyshire (a former Planned Parenthood consultant), added a word of warning about ignoring the possibility that human fetuses can feel pain.
“We may doubt whether the fetus (or an animal) ever feels anything akin to pain, but acting as if we have certainty flirts with a moral recklessness that we are motivated to avoid,” the article stated.
Are abortions actually painful for the unborn human being?
Pro-choice activists and abortion providers often try to assure pregnant women and the public that legal abortions are safe and humane.
Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
Abortion providers use powerful metal tools to dismember unborn human beings. Even though it’s become routine to provide anesthesia to wanted babies undergoing fetal surgery at 15 weeks and up, there is no such standard of care for those who are aborted.
It’s true that – partly due to laws aimed at protecting the unborn – it has become increasingly common to give a lethal injection to “induce fetal demise” before the fetus is surgically dismembered. Some abortion providers opt to do so for a variety of reasons, including to avoid the possible legal ramifications of killing a baby who exhibits “signs of life.”
However, the practice is not standardized or required, and the lethal injections themselves are often very painful. One of the most commonly-used drugs, digoxin, induces death by causing a massive heart attack. The drug can also be dangerous for the mother.
Whether or not an abortion begins with a lethal injection, the most common procedure for a second-trimester abortion (at about 15 or 16 weeks gestation) is known as Dilation and Evacuation (D&E).
In D&E procedures, abortion providers use forceps to grab hold of the fetus and tear him or her apart, limb by limb. Their parts are then reassembled to ensure that the whole body has been removed, and another tool is used to scrape out the inside of the woman’s uterus to retrieve any remains.
Up to about 14 or 15 weeks gestation, abortions are commonly performed using Dilation and Curettage (D&C) procedures. In this case, a fetus is suctioned from the mother’s womb and either removed whole (if small enough) or “rapidly torn to pieces” as he or she is pulled through the hollow tube. As with D&E procedures, a tool is then used to scrape out the uterus for any remains.
Don’t most abortions happen very early in the pregnancy? How big of an issue is this?
Most abortions do occur earlier in the pregnancy, but many thousands of second-trimester fetuses are aborted nationwide every year.
According to the CDC, about 6.6% of legal abortions in the U.S., or roughly 41,000 total abortions, took place at 14 weeks gestation or later in 2021.
In Oregon, 872 abortions were carried out at 13 weeks gestation or later in 2022.
As awareness of fetal development and pain capability has increased nationwide, many states now limit abortions at 15 weeks or earlier.
Tragically, Oregon is among a handful of states that allow abortion even up to the moment of birth.
A Pro-Life Apologetics Note:
Determining whether or not unborn human beings can feel pain at early gestational ages is certainly important. However, it’s not the only factor in deciding whether they deserve legal protection from abortion.
Even some born people with disabilities are unable to feel pain, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to life. A fetus’ right to life doesn’t come from what he or she can do, but who he or she is. From the moment of fertilization, an unborn human being is a unique, living individual with dignity, value, and a right to life!
