Date: 1999-10-21
Speaker: BILL FRIST (republican)
Chamber: S

when he talked about it from a medical perspective. I do not think anyone could have watched that and not been very supportive of Senator SANTORUM and everything he is trying to do. One of the things I do not think has really been answered appropriately is the fact that we keep hearing from the other side that both the National Abortion Federation and the National Abortion Rights Action League. all of these proabortion organizations which claim that the anesthesia that is administered to the mother prior to a partialbirth abortion kills the child and. therefore. the child feels no pain. Norig Ellison. the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. unequivocally stated that those claims had "absolutely no basis in scientific fact." In fact. I think the whole idea of pain really needs to be discussed more. Dr. Robert White. a neurosurgeon at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine said: The neuroanatomical pathways which carry the pain impulses are present in fetuses by the 20th week of gestation. Also. the neurosystems which would modulate and suppress these pain impulses are either not present or immature during this stage of fetal development. What this means is. if you stop and think how painful this procedure of going into the back of your head and opening the scissors and sucking the brains out would be to youto anyone who is here on this floorit could be more painful to the baby because those systems that modulate and suppress the pain are not developed at that stage. So I look at this in terms of human life. Almost all these faces that are standing up here supporting this technique. if you were to inflict that type of pain on a dog or a cat. they would be protesting in front of your offices. A minute ago. the Senator from Ohio made some reference to the fact that it is infanticide. I hope the prochoice people. a lot of people out there who are prochoice who believe abortion should be an alternative. will listen to the words of Senator PATRICK MOYNIHAN. who is prochoice. He said: I am prochoice. but this isnt abortion. this is infanticide. Lastly. let me just mention to you. I have this picture. This is Jase Rapert. He lives in Arkansas. I have seven grandchildren. He is No. 4. I can remember. and some of you older people can remember. back when our wives had babies. they would not even let you in -the hospital. let alone in the delivery room. When my little Molly. who is now a professor at the University of Arkansas. called me up and said: Daddy. delivery time is here. do you want to come in the delivery room? I did. I was in there for all three of her children. This is a picture of the first one. Jase. What registered to me at that time was. we have heard a lot of talk about maybe a baby isnt perfect or something. I do not think perfection exists anyway. But in every- sense of the word. that is a perfect baby. If they had made that decision. if my Molly or her husband had made that decision at the time while I was in that room they were delivering this beautiful baby. they could have murdered Baby Jase. That is what is going on in America now. You have to put it in a personal context that we understand. that this can happen to someone we love very much.