Wednesday

I'm pro-choice, but I like to think of myself as intellectually honest. And in all honesty, there's no way I can believe some pro-choice advocates' claims that fetuses don't feel pain. I've been pregnant four times and given birth three times. During my pregnancies, I felt my babies squirm around when I listened to loud music, as well as shift position when I poked a jutting foot or baby bum. And my youngest child, Elliot, spent several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit when he was born. Some of the babies there with him were born at far less than thirty weeks gestation. I saw them cry and flinch and grimace when they had to have a painful procedure performed.

So I can't imagine why this story - about a pediatrician who is testifying that fetuses feel pain - is being played like it's a big revelation. He says that the medical literature is pretty clear on this point and in my own anecdotal experience, this is a no-brainer. Of course a fetus feels pain.

It's a hard topic, but it doesn't make it any easier to lie about the facts.