NOW - NEW YORK STATE OPPOSE MEMO
A-04549 and S-2314 - Fetal Pain Prevention Act
March 2005 |
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This bill shifts the primary medical focus to fetuses and away from any concern or compassion for the women in need of abortion services. This bill also establishes an unacceptable precedent for the superiority of fetal rights over the rights of pregnant women. This legislation is part of an attempt to erode a woman’s constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion, and it is attempt to legislate medicine and science.
According The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a fetus needs a more developed nervous system, and neuro transmitted hormones in order to feel pain. In animals, these complex chemicals develop in the last third of the gestation period and there is no evidence supporting the claim that humans are any different. This bill requires a pregnant female to be notified of fetal pain with the physician’s request for consent to administer anesthesia to the fetus prior to all abortions taking place in the 20 th week, or second trimester, and beyond.
This legislation would intimidate and coerce women into carrying their pregnancies to term, even when it is against their own best interest. It is an attempt to deny the desperation that once forced American women into the life threatening, humiliating experiences of unsafe back-alley abortions.
The National Organization for Women- New York State, Inc. strongly urges the NYS Legislature to oppose this legislation and to ensure that the rights, life and health of a pregnant woman are always held supreme to any government interest in the fetus.
Marcia A. Pappas, President, NOW-NYS, Inc.
Lori Gardner, Executive VP
Barbara Kirkpatrick, Legislative Vice President
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