Florida refuses to be out Buffooned: The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, said he filed House Bill 321 because he’s “pro-life, a devout Catholic and based on the scientific evidence,” he believes “you can have a debate on when a child can feel pain and when that fetus is viable.”
His bill, titled the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” would not allow a woman to have an induced abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Trujillo said research on whether a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks is inconclusive, but the text of his bill states, “There is substantial evidence that an unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain. I would love to put on testimony for and against this bill to determine where the state of Florida stands.”
A 2010 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists fetal awareness study found that:
•The fetus cannot feel pain before 24 weeks because the connections in the fetal brain are not fully formed.
•Evidence … showed that the fetus, while in the chemical environment of the womb, is in a state of induced sleep and is unconscious.
“A wide range of stakeholders including scientists, doctors, midwives and lay representatives were involved in producing these reports,” a summary of the Royal College study states. “Relevant international scientific studies published since the 1990s were considered by the respective working parties as was evidence submitted to the Science and Technology Committee.”