Contact: Jeff Sagnip, 202-225-3765; chrissmith.house.gov 

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2015 /Standard Newswire/ -- Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) took to the House floor this afternoon to support and call for House passage of The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Smith, co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, gave the following remarks on the floor:

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. "Mr./Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend and colleague for yielding.

"Mr. Speaker, pain, we all dread it. We avoid it. We even fear it. And we all go to extraordinary lengths to mitigate its severity and its duration.

"Yet a whole class of human beings is being subjected to a painful – and deadly – procedure – one of which is called the dismemberment method, the D&E.

"The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is a modest but necessary attempt to at least protect babies who are 20 weeks old—and pain capable—from having to suffer and die from abortion.

"Children, including children with disabilities, deserve better treatment than  pain-filled dismemberment.

"The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act recognizes the medical evidence that unborn children feel pain.

"We are not living in the Dark Ages. One leading expert in the field of fetal pain, Dr. Anand, at the University of Tennessee stated in his expert report, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice:

'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. Colleen Malloy, assistant professor, Division of Neonatology at the Northwestern University, in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in May of 2012 said:

'When we speak of infants at 20 weeks postfertilization we no longer have to rely on inferences or ultrasound imagery, because such premature patients are kicking, moving and reacting and developing right before our eyes in the neonatal intensive care unit.'

"In other words, there are children the same age who, in utero, can be painfully killed by abortion who have been born and are now being given lifesaving assistance.

"She went on to say:

'In today's medical arena, we resuscitate patients at this age and are able to witness their ex-utero growth'

"Dr. Malloy concludes:

'I could never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to horrific procedures such as those that involve limb detachment or cardiac injection'

"Surgeons today entering the womb to perform life-enhancing corrective procedures on unborn children have seen those babies flinch, jerk, and recoil from sharp objects and incisions.

"As they seek to heal, surgeons today routinely administer anesthesia to unborn children in the womb to protect them from pain. We now know that the child ought to be treated as a patient, and there are many anomalies, many sicknesses that can be treated with a degree of success while the child is still in utero. When those interventions are performed, anesthesia is given.

"Last June TIME Magazine's cover story, 'Saving Preemies' explored the preemie revolution and how cutting edge medicine and dedicated caregivers are helping the tiniest babies to survive and thrive.

"TIME says 'Thanks to advances that had not been made even a few years ago, the odds of surviving and thriving are improving all the time.'

"Abortionists on the other hand are in the business of ensuring that children neither survive nor thrive. Children, including children with disabilities, deserve better treatment than pain-filled dismemberment. Pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act."