LifeSite Is Just Embarrassing Itself: Fetal Pain Redux

They really got nuthin'.

Look at this from yesterday's LieShite.

The Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA] is facing calls to retract a 2005 study that pro-lifers have labeled a “propaganda tool” for abortion activists.

In 2016, fetus freaks are attacking a study from 2005 still deployed to refute the BAD (biased, agenda-driven) science used to pass "fetal pain" laws, lowering abortion term limits and/or imposing idiotic protocols on providers, as recently in Utah.

What do the fetus freaks offer in support of their contention that fetuses do too feel pain?

Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into fetal pain. He first published reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for unborn pain.

He has testified before Congress in the past that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.”

That seemed eerily familiar. Look what I found from 2010, also at LieShite.

Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into the concept of fetal pain and published the first reports in the 1980s to validate research show [sic] evidence for it.

He has testified before Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at "eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier" and that a baby before birth "under the right circumstances, is capable of crying."

More bells started ringing in my old brain. Yes! I had trashed Dr. Zielinksi's rep here in 2012.

But, maybe the doc has been up to more recent stuff. After all, I can find no reference to him beyond 1986, thirty years ago.

I googled "Steven Zielinski Oregon fetal pain" and got this.

Amusingly, DJ!'s 2012 trashing is eighth on the first page in an otherwise exclusive club of fetus fetishist sites. All of which refer to him as "one of the leading researchers into fetal pain."

Let's consult some real scientists, shall we? Here's Live Science, on May 17, 2016, speaking with "a leading expert on fetal pain," Dr. Anne Davis, OB/GYN and associate professor at Columbia University Medical Center, who appears a tad more impressive than the elusive Dr. Zielinski.

She says the 2005 JAMA study, now under SHRIEEK attack from the freaks, is still valid. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has also recently reaffirmed the study, saying "no research has contradicted its findings."

No new research. Same old bullshit references. Almost identical wording. Their "leading researcher into fetal pain" still MIA after thirty years.

They got nuthin'. But as long as they keep trotting this crap out, I'll be watching.


Previous DJ! posts on "fetal pain" and BAD science.

Debate These Liars?

Not only is Maurice Vellacott -- like all fetus fetishists -- an opportunistic creep, he is also a lying liar.

From his press release:

Scientific research is revealing an ever-younger age at which children in the womb feel pain. Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into fetal pain. He has testified that a child in the womb could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier.” (“Pro-Lifers Welcome First Fetal Pain Abortion Ban Lawsuit,” LifeNews.com, Sept. 1, 2011)

Note tenses: present, present, past.

I'd never heard of the fellow despite having been on the Bad Science of Fetal Pain beat for quite a while.

So I googled 'Steven Zielinski fetal pain' and got this featuring a flock of fetus fetishist sites with nary a credible source in sight.

Next, Google Scholar.

On the first page, I see only three citations -- all from the mid 1980s.

And that 'has testified'? Look. 1986.

Next, google for 'Steven Zielinksi'. Lots of them. Only one I could find is a doctor from Oregon.

Dr. Steven Zielinski specializes in internal medicine and legal medicine in Umatilla, Oregon.

'Legal medicine'? New jargon for 'whoring for the Fetus Lobby'?

That look like a 'leading researcher into fetal pain' to you? Making important discoveries in the present tense? Or the present century?

Now, consult a real scientist. P.Z. Myers explains fetal brain development.

Past sins by MV on that sciency-facty stuff here.

Fetal Pain, My Ass

Nebraska was the first, but now five more USian states -- Idaho, Kansas, Alabama, Indiana, and Oklahoma -- have bogus 'fetal pain' abortion restrictions.

There is plenty of good science to back up the assertion that fetuses do NOT have the necessary nervous system development to experience pain until well past the cut-offs these laws impose.

And now there's more, this one seeming to show that specific pain sensing does not occur until very near birth.

Fetuses can tell the difference between pain and touch in only the last two weeks before birth, which could help to explain why babies born prematurely often have abnormal pain responses.

Lorenzo Fabrizi from University College London and colleagues used EEG, a non-invasive way of measuring brain activity, on 46 newborn babies as they underwent a routine heel lance – a pinprick to the heel for taking a blood sample.

They also measured how the babies' brains responded to normal touch – a light tap to the heel. Almost half of the babies were born prematurely – some at just 28 weeks – so the team were able to compare the responses of babies in the final stages of development with those of babies born at full term.

Premature babies up to the age of 35 weeks had bursts of activity across the whole brain in response to both pain and touch, but a change happened around 35 weeks. Between 35 to 37 weeks – just before a fetus would normally be born – the brain seemed to become able to tell the two stimuli apart. The responses to both pain and touch now took place in specific areas on the front, back and sides of the brain, but the signal was much stronger for pain.

Fabrizi cautions that naturally we can't know what fetuses feel, but this study supports what the truthy-facty people submitted during hearings on the bills. Opponents of the bills said not only were they based on non-science, they would impose extra burdens on women seeking abortion.

So how's that working out?

Oh, look.

An eastern Idaho woman has filed what is believed to be the first lawsuit in the nation to directly challenge the constitutionality of a so-called "fetal pain" abortion ban.

Her story is pretty sad.

[Jennie Lin] McCormack was charged with a felony in June after police said she took pills to terminate her pregnancy last December. Police found the fetus in a box at McCormack's Pocatello home Jan. 9, and an autopsy determined it was between five and six months gestation. Police said McCormack told them she didn't have enough money to go to a licensed medical professional, so her sister helped her access abortion-inducing drugs online.

A judge later dismissed the criminal case without prejudice for lack of evidence.

. . . In the lawsuit, McCormack challenges the lack of access to abortions for women in her region, as well as the ban on abortions after 20 weeks.

She notes there are no elective-abortion providers in southeastern Idaho, forcing women seeking the procedure to travel elsewhere.

McCormack was unmarried and unemployed at the time of her pregnancy - with an income of $200 to $250 a month - and already had three children. She couldn't afford the time or money it would take to travel to Salt Lake City to get an abortion, the lawsuit says.

This is what you get when you are governed by rightwing nutbars who refuse to listen to those nasty elitists, who, you know, actually know a thing or two.

And here's the part I would find enormously galling if I were a taxpayer in one of those states, regardless of my position on abortion.

It's not the first time Idaho lawmakers have passed abortion laws that they were warned likely would be found unconstitutional. In the past decade, Idaho has spent more than $730,000 to defend restrictive abortion laws that ended up being struck down by courts. Those costly rulings prompted legislative leaders in recent years to require that abortion-related legislation be reviewed by the Idaho attorney general's office.

The Constitution-clutching Tea Baggers know that these laws are likely unconstitutional and they go ahead and pass them anyway, creating unnecessary hoops for women to jump through and burdening the taxpayers with the costs of defending them.

When they are indefensible on any front. Bad science, bad policy, bad law.

But what the hell? We're at war, the Christian Taliban proclaims. The War on Women, now a weekly feature at Daily Kos.

Equality Before the Law*, My A$$

Nebraska is the new Kansas.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has signed two landmark abortion bills into law that both sides of the abortion debate say are firsts in the country.

One bars abortions at and after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on assertions that fetuses feel pain at that time. The current standard is viability, or when a fetus is able to survive outside the womb.

Abortion-rights advocates say that is a clear break with court precedent and it won't withstand a court challenge. Supporters of the ban see an opening in previous court rulings.

The other bill signed by Heineman will require doctors or other health professionals to assess whether women have risk factors that could lead to mental or physical problems after an abortion.

In their zeal to punish women and target abortion providers -- one in particular -- Nebraskan lawmakers completely disregarded the sciencey-facty evidence they were presented with.

As we reported here, the 'assertions' that fetuses feel pain at or before 20 weeks is pure hogwash.

As are assertions that abortion causes psychological or mental problems as we reported here.

The aim of the first law is simple, to target late-abortion provider Dr LeRoy Carhart, one of the few remaining specialists left in the US, since Dr. George Tiller was murdered.

Late-term abortions are those performed past 20 weeks gestation, so that 20-week limit is the giveaway of the law's intent. By the way, less than 1 per cent of abortions in Canada and just over 1 per cent in the US are done after 20 weeks and for pretty dire reasons. In Canada, 90 per cent of abortions are done at or before 13 weeks.

And, sadly, this will affect not just Nebraskan women, but women from all over the US desperately seeking such specialized procedures from Dr. Carhart.

Canadian women too.

In Canada, a woman cannot have an elective abortion past 24 weeks gestation. There are simply no doctors and no facilities that will allow for an elective termination at that point. In fact, there are only a few doctors in the entire country who are willing to perform abortions past 20 weeks. As there are different methods of abortion, each woman's pregnancy is individually assessed by a doctor to help decide which method is safest and best for her. However, since abortion services after 20 weeks are not easily available in Canada, many women who seek an abortion at this point must either travel to another province or to the United States, or must continue to carry the pregnancy to term.

Fetus fetishists are celebrating today. And normal people are left -- again -- shaking their heads at the sadistic cruelty of these meddling shitheads.

* The motto of the state.

Do Nebraskan Fetuses Feel More Pain Than Their Neighbours?

The bold new front in the anti-choice war -- the bogus science of fetal pain.

A group of lawmakers is pushing to make Nebraska the first state to outlaw most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the argument that the fetus might feel pain during the procedure.

While six other states, those fetus fetishizing heavy-hitters --Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Utah -- require that women seeking abortion be guilt-tripped with a mandatory lecture including the information that a fetus may feel pain, this would be the first time that fetal pain would determine whether an abortion would be allowed.

Experts testified on both sides of the 'when do fetuses feel pain' question. Anti-choicers were all on the 'you filthy whores are inflicting unimaginable pain on innocent pre-born children' side. (Google 'fetal pain' for a round-up on who's on that side.)

Not surprisingly, the sciency-facty people are on the 'let's look at fetal neurological development, shall we?' side.

Well, shall we?

In 2005, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that found:

A fetus's neurological pathways in its brain that allow for the "conscious perception of pain" do not function until after 28 weeks' gestation.

More science:.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it knows of no legitimate evidence that shows a fetus can experience pain. It says a fetus’ brain begins its final stage of development between the 20th and 40th weeks of pregnancy, and that certain hormones that develop in the final trimester also must be present for it to feel pain. It’s not known exactly when those hormones are formed.

And finally, P.Z. Myers with a straightforward explanation of fetal brain development.

Which is all very interesting, but kinda beside the point. Because the law would probably be found unconstitutional.

Opponents say the bill, if passed into law, would be found unconstitutional if tested. It bans abortions for fetuses who could not live outside the womb and it fails to state a constitutionally recognized state interest - preservation of the potential life and regulation necessary to protect the health of the woman.

So what's really going on here? Besides the usual wanking, I mean.

Well, it seems that the sponsor of the bill had this to say when introducing it:

"With Dr. Leroy Carhart performing and advertising such late-term abortions here in Nebraska, the state needs to recognize the reality of what’s going on," Flood said.

Carhart, 67, has twice challenged abortion bans before the Supreme Court, successfully defeating a Nebraska late-term abortion ban in 2000 because the state didn’t provide for a woman’s health, and losing as part of a broad challenge to the 2007 federal ban on the so-called partial-birth procedures.

Abortion rights proponents are worried anti-abortion groups, by tying Carhart’s name to the current debate, are making him more of a target.

Dr Carhart already has a target painted on his back, his clinic, his home, his family, and his employees, and probably his little dog too. Painted by Operation Scumbag Rescue, moving on from its successful campaign against Dr George Tiller.

Let's run the checklist:
Another impediment to legal abortion? Check.

Manipulate and guilt-trip women? Check.

Target an abortion provider? Check?

Oh, and one more. Caitlin Borgmann, who testified against the bill at the hearing, reports:

At the hearing yesterday, the proponents of Nebraska's bill to ban abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy were asked about the lack of a mental health exception. In response to questions about a woman who is suicidal, they suggested she be treated with electroconvulsive therapy and be confined and restrained for the duration of her pregnancy, rather than be allowed access to abortion.

Torture and imprison women and force them to bear children? Yee-haw!