Signed by Governor Kathleen Blanco

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that requires physicians to inform women who are considering abortion about fetal pain, as well as to offer the option to anesthetize the unborn child/fetus.

Highlights:

- Requires that all women considering an abortion be provided complete information regarding the availability of anesthesia or analgesics for the unborn child/fetus’s pain that may be caused by the abortion procedure (sec. 1).

- Allows women to have the option of reviewing and receiving an explanation of an obstetric ultrasound of the fetus (sec. 1).

- Requires that the information which doctors provide to women considering having an abortion must include the following information: “By twenty weeks of gestation, the unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain. There is evidence that by twenty weeks gestation unborn children seek to evade certain stimuli in a manner, which an infant or an adult would be interpreted to be a response to pain. Anesthesia is routinely administered to unborn children who are twenty weeks gestational age or older who undergo prenatal surgery.” (sec. 1).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that requires physicians to inform women who are considering abortion about fetal pain, as well as to offer the option to anesthetize the fetus/unborn child.

Highlights:

- Requires that all women considering an abortion be provided complete information regarding the availability of anesthesia or analgesics for the unborn child/fetus’s pain that may be caused by the abortion procedure (sec. 1). - Allows women have the option of reviewing and receiving an explanation of an obstetric ultrasound of their unborn child/fetus (sec. 1). - Requires that the information which doctors provide to women considering having an abortion must include the following information: “By twenty weeks of gestation, the unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain. There is evidence that by twenty weeks gestation unborn children seek to evade certain stimuli in a manner which an infant or an adult would be interpreted to be a response to pain. Anesthesia is routinely administered to unborn children who are twenty weeks gestational age or older who undergo prenatal surgery.” (sec. 1).

Full Bill Text