Anesthesia's Effect on the Baby - The anesthesia given to the mother has little or no effect on the baby, according to congressional testimony by the nation's leading anesthesiologists, including the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Medical experts testified that babies at this age can experience great pain. Medical experts testified before congressional committees that it is never necessary to kill a baby that has been almost entirely delivered to preserve the life or health of a mother. The abortion issue poisons our national political life. Catholics cannot in good conscience avoid its centrality in their political decision making.
Abortion is no more a single issue than was slavery.
It is instead a defining issue, one which shapes the future of our nation. The present legal policy of abortion on demand, which permits even the killing of partially born infants, weakens the social contract that has kept this country together.