Painfully unaware

National: ABORTION TRIAL: Fetal-pain expert testifies on the "excruciating" partial-birth procedure as the government defends its ban against the industry's lawsuit. But as the trial produces sensational testimony, the courtroom remains virtually journalist-free | John Dawson

NEW YORK -- The National Abortion Federation never wanted Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand to testify in the ongoing Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act trials. And no wonder: The Oxford- and Harvard-trained neonatal pediatrician and pain expert told a New York courtroom on April 13 that unborn children would feel "excruciating pain" during either a dilation and evacuation or dilation and extraction procedure.

That argument-a key justification for the partial-birth abortion ban passed in 2003-will find its way into several other trials going on simultaneously across the country. But federal judges in San Francisco and Omaha have limited the scope of evidence government lawyers can present, making it more difficult to defend the ban. But in New York, Judge Richard Conway Casey has allowed the defense to establish a broad record of harm and frivolity in partial-birth abortions. "That's huge when it goes to the Supreme Court," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.