 |
| screenshot from Right to Life UK video |
The study involved thirteen mothers with babies between the gestational ages 28 and 34 weeks. Five of these babies had diaphragmatic hernias requiring intrauterine surgeries. The other babies were placed in two different control groups.
The group undergoing the surgery received an injection of anesthesia, and those children were recorded via ultrasound for 45 seconds before and after the injection. One control group was stimulated with acoustics while being recorded, and the other group was recorded after the mother sat in a quiet, dark room for five minutes.
Researchers who did not know which babies were which analyzed the facial expressions of the ultrasound images to find indicators of pain.
According to Live Action News,
"The researchers watched for brow lowering, eyes squeezing shut, deepening of the furrow of nose and lip, open lips, horizontal mouth stretch, vertical mouth stretch, and neck deflection. Each baby received one point for each action that was present."
On their seven-point scale, the researchers found that the group which experienced injections scored no lower than five, and scored about six on average. The control groups, on the other hand, scored in a wide range between zero at the lowest and four at the highest.
After analyzing the results, the researchers concluded “[O]ur data indicate AP [acute pain] group participants exhibited an acute nociceptive-related [pain-related] facial response, that may have been experienced as pain.”
This would suggest that unborn children in the third trimester would in-fact feel pain. During that trimester, abortionists often practice dilation and evacuation abortions, which involve tearing the arms and legs off an unborn child before crushing its skull. This is because the child has grown too large to be removed from a mother's womb by other means.
