Petition to the
Virginia General Assembly
I support the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
for the following reasons:
- Unborn children have pain receptors (nociceptors) present throughout their entire body and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than 20 weeks.
- The unborn child reacts to touch by 8 weeks after fertilization.
- After 20 weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult, for example, by recoiling.
- In the unborn child, application of such painful stimuli is associated with significant increases in stress hormones known as the stress response.
- For the purposes of surgery on unborn children, fetal anesthesia is routinely administered and is associated with a decrease in stress hormones compared to their level when painful stimuli are applied without such anesthesia.
- Consequently, there is substantial medical evidence that an unborn child is capable of experiencing pain by 20 weeks after fertilization.
- Therefore, the State has a compelling state interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain.
Therefore, I urge you to Sponsor and Support the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
