First of all, I'm going to discuss why this is pointlessly destructive and stupid. I got most of my initial data from the following 2016 link:
https://www.livescience.com/54774-fe...nesthesia.html
Pain occurs in the brain. Signals have to travel from pain receptors, up the spinal cord, and into the brain.
Receptors that can sense injuries form between 7.5 and 15 weeks pregnancy, with those around the mouth forming at about 7.5 weeks, and receptors around the abdomen forming at around 15 weeks.
Next, neurons in the spinal cord that can transmit signals up to the brain form at about 19 weeks.
Next, neurons that can transmit pain from the sensors in the skin up the nervous system must extend all the way to the part of the brain responsible for experiencing pain. This generally occurs between 23 and 24 weeks.
After that, the aforementioned anatomical structures must also be functional which, according to the link, doesn't generally happen until about 30 weeks.
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So, it doesn't seem like the fetus will be able to experience pain until well into the pregnancy, and if the fetus can't experience pain...if there is any reason why the fetus would likely have a better life if the mother got an abortion and had another child later...and the mother wants to do that...what reason is there not to do that? Particularly if the fetus has some kind of life altering-genetic disorder, or is born into extreme poverty, or to parents addicted to heavy drugs, or parents who simply don't want a child at this time?
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My state a-hole representatives and senators don't just want the abortion of healthy fetuses banned after eight weeks though. That'd be bad enough. Some obese people can't tell they're pregnant. My state isn't allowing exceptions for disorders, birth defects, or pregnant parents with mental problems.
So, in other words, my state representatives and senators want to force parents to give birth to children with sickle cell anemia, and missing limbs, and heart defects, and severe mental problems...many of whom won't have the resources to care for them, when the fetuses could have simply been aborted during a time when they can't feel pain yet.
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Now...perhaps pain doesn't work quite like we think it does, but so far as I can tell, there is no evidence fetuses experience anywhere near as early as my state wants to implant an abortion ban.
What is obvious though, is that if Roe v. Wade ends, my state government will cause definite suffering for kids and parents alike.
My state government has been conquered by psychic parasites I like to call the "Wyrm." I like to imagine it like an enormous, ethereal tapeworm that slides into people's minds and tempts them to spread its ideas, and through those ideas, sends its ethereal larvae, into new minds. It tells lies to people and feeds off mental sloth. It insists to people that there are misleadingly easy solutions to complicated problems. It tells them lies like "the fetus is still a living being" conveniently ignoring that at early stages the death of the fetus likely won't matter to it...because the Wyrm is like a virus. It is mindless and exists only to spread.
Don't let your state be conquered by the wyrm. Missouri serves the Wyrm now...or is close to doing so.
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Most of the seemingly reliable websites I've found so far repeats the above, or something like it. I have not researched this extensively though. There are many, many sources out there that insist that pain can quite possible be experienced much earlier than suspected. I label many of them little better than propaganda because many of them fail to mention the above seemingly necessary processes for pain sensing. They'll not hesitate to mention that fetuses can react to damage or that fetuses in later stages of development have pain sensors in their skin...but they'll often fail to mention what still seemingly needs to develop for fetuses to experience pain.
There are some that are more honest that will mention how the aforementioned processes are important for adult experiences of pain, but will also mention that perhaps fetuses feel something different than adult pain, but still qualifiable as pain.
I liked this source too.
https://www.factcheck.org/2015/05/do...n-at-20-weeks/ It links to several interesting arguments, including the idea that children born missing almost all of their cerebral cortex experience pain. I have not verified whether that's true or not yet. That might point to true pain being experienced in fetuses earlier than suspected, if pain still exists...just differently than adults experience it.
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However, regardless of when pain happens...there will probably be some stage early enough that it won't be felt. If Missouri were to have a bill that said "sensory receptors in the skin first start to form at about 7.5 weeks, so we'll ban most abortions of healthy fetuses at 7.5 weeks, just to be sure they can't experience pain" but added on, "However, given that the pain of an abortion might not be worse than unpleasantness resulting from being born into a less than ideal state, we will allow numerous exceptions allowing abortions due to factors like the discovery of genetic disorders and birth defects (which often can't even be detected to fairly long after the first trimester is over with) or rape and incest, or the pregnant person being under 18, or the pregnant mother being addicted to heavy drugs, or living in a severely impoverished household or any number of other reasons people get abortions that strictly have to do with preventing the fetus from being born into a less than ideal life, that would at least kind of make sense. It would at least show their concerns are focused....somewhat...on the fetus...kind of
What they want now, though, is just pure fanatical nonsense that doesn't help anyone.
I first found out about this from this link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/u...rtion-law.html
My state's government website dealing with the HB126 bill is here:
https://www.house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?b...ar=2019&code=R
I don't know what these links mean, exactly, but there is a link for "Introduced, Committee, Perfected, and Truly Agreed."
Clicking the "Introduced" link will lead to the following:
https://www.house.mo.gov/billtrackin...df/HB0126I.pdf
I'm assuming that's an earlier version of it. It looks like that might ban all abortions if the fetus has a heartbeat. If that's true, that means a bunch of people in my state actually want to be more screwed up than Alabama.
Clicking the "Perfected" link will lead to the following:
https://www.house.mo.gov/billtrackin...df/HB0126P.pdf
It now allows exceptions for abortions in the case of a "medical emergency." It also says:
The bill creates the "Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act." This bill specifies that if there is in any change in federal law or court decisions that allow it, it is the intent of the state of Missouri that abortion shall not be permitted in the state under any circumstances. If a total ban is not possible, abortions shall be limited to women who are less than eight weeks gestational age, with a required fetal heartbeat or brain function test. Except in cases of medical emergency, a physician shall not perform or induce an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected and shall inform the woman, in writing, that such abortion cannot be performed or induced.
so yeah...they genuinely want to ban all abortions of fetuses with beating hearts. If they can't do that because of Roe v. Wade, our a-hole political leaders want an 8 week ban.
It looks like if they can't do the 8 week ban, they'll do a 14 week ban:
If the state is prohibited from adopting the fetal heartbeat standard, abortions shall be limited to women less than 14 weeks gestational age. And, if that is not possible, Missouri will adopt a Pain-Capable standard and abortions will not be permitted past 18 weeks gestational age (Sections 188.026 and 188.027).
It looks like they'll also have abortion banned at 20 weeks, with harsher penalties for breaking that part of the law.
Not only don't they allow exceptions for disorders, birth defects, and other complications relating to the well-being of the fetus, they have a section in there that specifically punishes abortions due to discovering that the fetus has Downe syndrome. Downe syndrome, by the way, often is associated with other sorts of birth defects, particularly heart defects in, I've read, about half of children with Downe syndrome.
The "Truly Agreed" sections seems to repeat most of the stuff in the "Perfected" section, but in less detail.
Also, I think it's relevant to add that many birth defects can't be detected until fairly late into the pregnancy. Amniocentesis can detect for Downe syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and Tay Sach's disease. It appears to be completed between 15 and 18 weeks of pregnancy.
High resolution ultrasounds are done between 18 and 22 weeks of pregnancy to look in more detail for birth defects suggested in previous stages. I got that data from here:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/diagnosis.html
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