Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Letter to Congress

PRESIDENT
James R. Hines, MD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
David Stevens, MD
_________________________
May 11, 2015
Dear Member of Congress:
BOARD OF REFERENCE
Ronald W. Blue
Founder and President
Ronald Blue & Co.
Lawrence J. Crabb, Jr., Ph.D
President
Institute of Biblical Counseling
Anthony T. Evans, ThD
President
The Urban Alternative
The Late C. Everett Koop, MD
Former U.S. Surgeon General
Walt Larimore, MD
Family Physician,
Author, Medical Journalist
Duane Litfin, Phd
Past President
Wheaton College
Josh McDowell
Director
Josh McDowell Ministries
Haddon Robinson, PhD
Professor
Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary
I am writing on behalf of the 14,000 members of the Christian Medical Association to
express our wholehearted support H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
We physicians support this bill because it is consistent with scientific integrity, compassion
and the medical principle of informed consent:
• Scientific integrity calls for an objective presentation of the major advances in
scientific knowledge about fetal development and pain perception. Developing
babies at this age feel pain; they grimace and withdraw during procedures. The more
experience we have with very premature babies in intensive-care units, the clearer it
becomes that no rationale can justify harming them in utero at the same age.
• Compassion demands that next to protecting life and promoting healing, a physician
must do all in his or her power to alleviate pain.
• Informed consent requires that any woman contemplating an abortion receive full
and objective information about the procedure--including the pain her developing
child will experience.
We urge you to support this vital legislation.
Thank you for your consideration of these views.
Joni Eareckson Tada
President
JAF Ministries
Ravi Zacharias
President
Ravi Zacharias International
Ministries
_____________________
P.O. Box 7500
Bristol, TN 37621-7500
Phone: (423) 844-1000
Fax: (423) 844-1005
e-mail: [email protected]
www.cmda.org
David L. Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics)
Chief Executive Officer
Christian Medical & Dental Associations