Contact: Day Gardner, National Pro-Life Action Center, 202-834-0844, dgardner@nplac.org  

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- Paul Schenck, founder and Executive Director of the National Pro Life Action Center, (NPLAC), states that the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act was a two-edged sword. While calling attention to the humanity of the child targeted for abortion, it equally sent the intolerable message that you can legally kill the child -- just consider anesthetizing her before you do it.

Schenck says that is like telling the Ku Klux Klan that you can "lynch the Black man, just anesthetize him before you string him up," or to the Nazis, "you can gas the Jews, just give them some anesthesia before you do." This is what he calls "the abortion distortion. "Still," he said, "the debate was useful in calling attention to the suffering of the aborted child, and the careless and expedient way in which women in distress are treated."

NPLAC Chairman Stephen G. Peroutka, a Maryland attorney and radio talk show host stated, "The bill was really flawed from the start, and should be reconsidered, not only recommending anesthetic, but prohibiting all abortions."

The bill received majority support in the House, but failed to pass under rules requiring two-thirds support for passage. The final vote was 250-162.

"This bill did attempt to educate us all about the humanity and dignity of the unborn child," said Kimberly Zenarolla, Executive Vice president of NPLAC. "There has been such deliberate deception to keep women in the dark about the pain and horror of abortion. A child is the greatest gift a mother can know and so many have been denied this joy by lack of guidance and truth. Our government allows women to give into fear and despair by aborting their children only to their own regret and the impoverishment of us all."