When President Reagan said that unborn babies feel pain during abortion in 1984, it provoked a reaction from pro-choice circles who denied this. A letter was written by a group of professors including two past presidents of the American College of obstetrics and gynecology, backing the fact that fetuses feel pain.
“Real-time ultrasonography, fetoscopy, study of the fetal EKG and fetal EEG have demonstrated a remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain, touch, and sound. That the fetus response to changes in light intensity within the womb, DC, to cold, and to taste (by altering the chemical nature of the fluid swallowed by the fetus) has been exquisitely documented in the pioneering work of the late Sir William Lily – the father of fetology,”
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J C. Wilke and Mrs Wilke Why Can’t We Love Them Both : Questions and Answers About Abortion (Hayes Publishing Company; 2000)