House of
Representatives
HB 2254
abortion; fetal pain
Sponsors: Representative Gorman, Representative Biggs, Representative Burges, Representative Groe et al
HB 2254 requires a doctor who will be performing an abortion on a woman who is at least twenty weeks pregnant to inform the woman that the unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain.
History
The sensation of pain occurs through a complex process within the nerve system. The sensation is triggered by nerves, reacting to some stimulus. The stimulus creates a signal which travels by means of the nervous system to the spinal column.. It then travels up the spinal column to the thalamus, a part of the brain, and onward to the cerebral cortex, where it is finally interpreted as a painful sensation. It is agreed by most scientists that a fetus can feel pain during some portion of the pregnancy.
Provisions
· A pregnant woman who requests an abortion of an unborn child who has reached a probable stage of development of twenty weeks after conception must be informed of the following by the physician:
1. The unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain.
2. At this point of gestational development, unborn children draw away from surgical instruments in a manner that in an infant or an adult would be interpreted as a response to pain.
3. The unborn child will experience pain even if the mother has received a pain reducing drug.
4. The woman requesting an abortion has the right to choose to have anesthesia or drugs administered directly to the unborn child.
· Before an abortion is performed the woman must sign a written acknowledgment that the woman received the information.
· A physician who violates this section commits an act of unprofessional conduct and is subject to license suspension or revocation pursuant to title 32, chapter 13 or 17.
· The physician is not required to provide the information prescribed in this section if the physician certifies in the pregnant woman's medical record that, on the basis of the physician's good faith clinical judgment, the pregnant woman has a condition that so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function.
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· Forty-seventh Legislature Analyst Initials _______
· Second Regular Session January 16, 2006
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