Neonatologist: Babies Do Feel Pain In The Womb. I’ve Seen It

Commentary from Robin Pierucci on The Federalist.com (Jan. 29):

As a neonatologist, I have an insider’s view on the science behind the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which Congress is set to vote on this week. This bill would prevent abortions of unborn children after 20 weeks—just shy in age of the babies I regularly care for. Putting aside a medical ethics discussion about abortion at this time, edge-of-viability unborn babies feel pain. Here’s how I know.

You Can Make a Preemie Mad

In the neonatal intensive care unit, I see premature babies at the edge of viability (23-24 weeks’ gestation) react to painful or uncomfortable procedures every day. For example, when you poke them for blood work, the babies wrinkle up their faces, kick their feet, clench their hands into tiny fists, curl their toes, arch their backs and try to wriggle away, or smack at the offending person. Just ask the nurses.

Measurable physiologic responses to noxious stimuli can include elevated heart and respiratory rates. Some babies just stop breathing and become bluer than any toddler in full-blown tantrum mode. I’ve watched both. Whether they are term or extremely immature, even though they can’t use words, babies in every neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) clearly do not react well to what the adults know are painful procedures.

Some argue that all of these reactions are just that, mere reactions. After the House bill was passed in October 2017, news outlets and abortion providers attempted to rebut the bill with information from a decade-old study on fetal pain. They concluded that a fetus cannot feel pain prior to 26 weeks because the central nervous system (CNS) is not sufficiently intact.

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More Recent Science on Fetal Pain Perception

Yet a growing body of scientific research demonstrates that fetal CNS maturation is notrequired for pain perception. In 2016 the Journal of Pain Research published a summary of multiple different scientific studies all leading to the conclusion that “an early form of pain may appear from the 15th week of gestation onward.” This early physiologic response “is different than emotional pain felt by the more mature fetus,” but it is still a form of physical pain.

Importantly, just the physiologic stress alone can cause long-term developmental changes to an unborn child’s brain, “ultimately leading to adverse neurological outcomes” for that unborn child. Thus, fetal anesthesia is now standard of care for all surgeries performed on unborn children.

Although “whether a fetus is capable of experiencing pain as a conscious and emotional feeling remains unclear….we cannot deny that the fetal nervous system mounts protective responses to tissue injury.” In other words, we know that painful stimuli is causing (sometimes damaging) reactions from the baby, even if it is impossible for us to confirm its exact nature by having these infants “tell us” how they feel. [read more]