Contact: Patrick Creamer, Communications, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, 202-225-3765

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /Standard Newswire/ -- Following today's vote in the House of Representatives on the "Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act" (H.R. 6099), U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said the majority vote the legislation received shows that there is "overwhelming" concern for the pain children suffer during an abortion.

"Today, we can no longer deny, trivialize, or gloss over the significant and ever expanding body of knowledge that shows that an unborn child suffers real pain - excruciating pain - when he or she is dismembered as in a D & E abortion, or jabbed with scissors in a partial birth abortion, or poisoned by an abortionist," Smith said during debate on the House floor this morning. Smith's legislation garnered a majority, but was just shy of 'super-majority' necessary to pass under suspension of the rules.

During the debate, Smith pointed out that the partial-birth abortion ban trials have drawn new attention to the pain that unborn children feel during an abortion. In expert testimony during those trials, Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, director of the Pain Neurobiology Lab at the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute explained, "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."

Smith criticized the opposition for their use of junk science during the House debate this morning.

"The debate today exposed a 2005 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that denied the pain unborn babies feel during an abortion because it was authored by pro- abortionists who did not reveal their biases or affiliations. JAMA should be ashamed of itself for publishing a slick pro- abortion propaganda piece. One author, Eleanor Drey, runs the largest abortion clinic in San Francisco, which performs an estimated 600 late-term abortions annually, including abortions by dismemberment. None of that was disclosed when the JAMA article was published," Smith said.

Smith noted that the support shows that a majority of members of the House of Representatives are extremely concerned about the pain unborn babies feel during the act of abortion.

"This vote shows that there is indeed an overwhelming concern for the suffering of the unborn during an abortion. The unfortunate thing is there are still those in the House who are simply not concerned about the pain unborn children feel nor do they see the importance in relaying this critical information to women," Smith, the bill's author, said after the vote.

Smith said he fully intends to continue to push this legislation, which requires that women considering an abortion are informed of the intense pain their baby would feel during an abortion and offer her the option to reduce the pain inflicted on the unborn baby through anesthesia, in the 110th Congress.

"The majority we gained today is proof-positive that we can pass this legislation despite the unwillingness of some extreme pro-abortion members of Congress. I remain determined to find an avenue to pass this legislation in the near future," said Smith.