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The last session of Congress was very successful for the pro-life movement. Two significant pieces of legislation -- the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act -- were signed into law by President Bush. It took years -- even decades -- of struggle on the part of pro-life activists to achieve those successes. There are children yet to be born who will owe their lives to those who kept working no matter the difficulties encountered, which in the process forced Americans to rethink their views about abortion. However, the reality is that while we have made great strides, there is still work to be done. Now in a Senate with more Senators considered to be sympathetic to pro-life concerns, what are the most important agenda items likely to be advanced in this session?

Key items on the agenda are the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act and the Human Cloning Ban.

Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) have introduced the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act.

It is an unfortunate comment on our society that cattle have more protection than an unborn child from experiencing pain at death. That's right. According to the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, the Humane Slaughter Act holds that acts of slaughter of animals are considered to be humane if "all animals are rendered insensible to pain by a single blow or gunshot or an electrical, chemical, or other means that is rapid and effective, before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut."

However, there is no precautionary step required to be taken to lessen an unborn child's pain during an abortion. A dilation and evacuation abortion, frequently used in second trimester abortions, is a pretty gruesome procedure, using metal forceps to yank the child from the womb. Maternal anesthesia does not suffice. In order to have an effect on the child the maternal anesthesia would need to avoid being metabolized by the mother's liver, then enter her blood stream, cross the placental membrane, be filtered through the unborn child's membrane system, and then cross his blood/brain barrier.

On April 15, 2004, Dr. K.J.S. "Sunny" Anand, Director of the Pain Neurobiology Laboratory at the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, testified before the U.S. District Court, Northern District, California:

"The highest density of pain receptors per square inch of skin in human development occurs in utero from 20 to 30 weeks of gestation. During this period, the epidermis is still very thin, leaving nerve fibers closer to the surface of the skin than in older neonates and adults...a fetus of 20-32 weeks of gestation would experience a much more intense pain than older infants or children or adults, when these age groups are subjected to similar types of injury or handling."

Similar sad and revealing testimony, from another case, in the U.S. District Court, Southern District, New York, is set out in the "Notable News Now" issued June 28, 2004, entitled, "Human Pain in Painful Words," and available on the Free Congress Foundation Website.

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