Chris Smith: “I thank my friend for yielding and for her extraordinary leadership. Thank you to Trent Franks, Speaker Boehner, Kevin…”

“I thank my friend for yielding and for her extraordinary leadership. Thank you to Trent Franks, Speaker Boehner, Kevin McCarthy, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, and the gentlewoman presiding in the Chair--so many. This has been a team effort, and it will yield considerable protection when it is finally enacted into law. Madam Speaker, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is landmark human rights law. It recognizes the compelling body of medical evidence that unborn children feel pain and seeks to safeguard and protect vulnerable children from the violence of abortion. Dr. Anand, a leading expert in the area of fetal pain, has said: ``It is my opinion that the human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.'' Dr. Malloy testified before the Judiciary Committee and said: When we speak of infants at 20 weeks we no longer have to rely on ultrasound imagery because premature patients are kicking, moving, and reacting and developing right before our eyes in the neonatal intensive care unit. Today, Madam Speaker, surgeons routinely administer anesthesia to unborn children--society's littlest patients--to treat diseases and anomalies and to perform benign corrective surgeries. Today, there are Kermit Gosnells--you remember him, the infamous abortionist who was convicted 2 years ago today in Philadelphia.…”