Can Preborn Children Feel Pain? A Former Abortionist Describes His Experience in New Video Series
10.10.2024
In a powerful and deeply moving video from Live Action's new Face to Face series, Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, is asked a heart-wrenching question by abortion survivor Claire Culwell: "What did my twin experience?" Culwell, who survived a D&E (dilation and evacuation) abortion that killed her twin, seeks answers about the horrific procedure.
In the video, which you can watch here, Levatino recounts his experience, recalling how he once felt a preborn child flinch and pull away from a needle during a diagnostic procedure, even at 16 or 17 weeks gestation. Though he admits he is not an expert on fetal pain, Levatino is unequivocal in his belief that preborn children can feel pain during abortion procedures. “Anyone who sits there and tells you that these fetuses can’t feel pain, I don’t believe that for a minute,” he told Culwell.
Levatino explains the brutal nature of the D&E abortion, a procedure used to end the lives of preborn children in the second trimester. The abortionist uses a Sopher clamp to dismember the child, tearing off limbs and often crushing the skull when it is too large to pass through the cervix. Levatino shares the graphic reality of this procedure, explaining in a previous Live Action video, “You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains.”
Culwell’s survival, contrasted with her twin’s tragic death, highlights the unbearable pain preborn children can experience during such procedures. Studies have shown that preborn children, especially those who undergo D&E abortions in the second trimester, are indeed capable of feeling pain. Research indicates that this pain sensitivity can develop as early as eight to 12 weeks gestation, adding to the ethical and moral weight of abortion procedures.
In 2012, Dr. Colleen Malloy, a pediatrician from Northwestern University, testified about fetal pain during a hearing for the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. “I firmly believe, as the evidence shows, that the fetal pain experience is no less than the neonatal or adult pain experience,” Malloy stated. She also suggested that preborn children might experience pain even more intensely than adults due to their development stage.
Culwell’s personal story, coupled with Levatino’s firsthand accounts, brings to light the harsh truth of abortion procedures like D&E. These procedures, which continue to claim the lives of innocent preborn children, are often shrouded in clinical language that masks the pain and suffering they cause.
For more information on this topic and to read Live Action's full article, click here.