For the first time in fifty years, the Supreme Court has been asked directly to overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision which took away the ability of the American people to protect preborn human beings.[1] The scientific information available to the Supreme Court in Roe was based primarily on the medical imagination of Justice Blackmun, who was neither a scientist nor a physician, but who relied on his own research to determine facts about preborn human beings, which was pivotal in the Courts decision to refuse to allow states to protect their preborn children.
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And despite the patently absurd claim by Justice Sotomayor during the oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that nothing has changed in medicine over the last 30 years regarding fetal pain, [2] the scientific reality is that fetuses at 15 weeks exhibit the same physiological reactions to pain[3] that Justice Sotomayor would experience: withdrawal from painful stimuli, increase in heartrate, etc. That is why when we operate on a fetus, that fetus is given separate anesthesia and the fetuses who have anesthesia do better than fetuses without anesthesia. The science is clear. The court has no excuse any longer to deny the reality of the human being in utero.
What was also clearly presented to the court is the information about the harms of abortion to women.[4] Fifty years of abortion in America has left a disaster of increasing preterm birth[5], increasing mental health problems including suicide, drug abuse and depression[6], and increasing breast cancer[7] in women who abort and subsequently delay bearing children.
And for the first time, the scientific and medical evidence regarding the harms of abortion was presented directly to the Supreme Court. We hope they don’t choose to ignore the facts. And the facts all point to one decision: The Supreme Court needs to catch up with the science and allow the people to decide for themselves. Roe must go.
Editor's note: Donna Harrison M.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG).
during oral arguments for the Dobbs case/ AAPLOG
[1] https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization/
[2] https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2021/19-1392_gfbi.pdf page 17-19
[3] https://aaplog.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/PG-2-Fetal-Pain.pdf
[4] https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1392/185350/20210729163532595_No.%2019-1392%20-%20American%20Association%20of%20Pro-Life%20Obstetricians%20and%20Gynecologists%20-%20Amicus%20Brief%20in%20Support%20of%20Petitioner%20-%207-29-21.pdf
[5] https://aaplog.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/PB-5-Overview-of-Abortion-and-PTB.pdf
[6] https://aaplog.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/FINAL-Abortion-Mental-Health-PB7.pdf
[7] https://aaplog.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/FINAL-CO-8-Abortion-Breast-Cancer-1.9.20.pdf
