{"id":274175,"date":"2026-02-18T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=274175"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:51:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:51:53","slug":"planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable. During a February 2026 hearing in Jackson County, Dr. Steven Ralston, a maternal fetal medicine doctor testifying for Planned Parenthood, responded to questions about pain perception by stating, \u201cI don\u2019t know that [a one-year-old experiences pain] because I don\u2019t know that a one-year-old experiences consciousness.\u201d He added that consciousness emerges \u201cdifferent for different individuals,\u201d refusing to specify a timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The testimony came amid Planned Parenthood&#8217;s lawsuit against Missouri&#8217;s trigger law banning abortion following the 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Filed by Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, and represented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the ACLU of Missouri, and the American Civil Liberties Union, the suit seeks to block state laws conflicting with the Missouri Constitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This follows the 2024 voter-approved \u201cReproductive Freedom Initiative,\u201d which enshrined abortion rights in the state.Ralston&#8217;s claims are a dangerous extension of pro-abortion ideology that deny biological reality and the sanctity of life from conception. Scientific evidence shows fetuses feel pain as early as 12 weeks gestation, and infants are undeniably conscious beings deserving protection\u2014not dismissal as non-entities to justify termination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This dehumanization echoes leftist efforts to expand abortion access, ignoring the moral crisis of over 10,000 annual abortions in Missouri alone. The case highlights the ongoing battle to defend the unborn against taxpayer-funded organizations like Planned Parenthood, which prioritize death over life-affirming alternatives. As Missouri enforces protections post-Dobbs, such testimony exposes the ethical void in the abortion agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable. During a February 2026 hearing in Jackson County, Dr. Steven Ralston, a maternal fetal medicine doctor testifying for Planned Parenthood, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":274176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[808],"tags":[475,909,9863],"class_list":["post-274175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-abortion","tag-pro-life-2","tag-right-to-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-18T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-2026-02-17T225130.347.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"IFN English\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"IFN English\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain - IFN","description":"A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain","og_description":"A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable.","og_url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain","og_site_name":"IFN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\/","article_published_time":"2026-02-18T16:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-2026-02-17T225130.347.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"IFN English","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/iFamNewsEN","twitter_site":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"IFN English","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain"},"author":{"name":"IFN English","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/633bdb7ac2496c9b9304ce62d071cdfa"},"headline":"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain","datePublished":"2026-02-18T16:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain"},"wordCount":294,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-2026-02-17T225130.347.png","keywords":["Abortion","Pro-life","right to life"],"articleSection":["Life"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain","name":"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain - IFN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-2026-02-17T225130.347.png","datePublished":"2026-02-18T16:00:00+00:00","description":"A Planned Parenthood expert testified in a Missouri court that infants and toddlers may not be conscious beings or capable of feeling pain, underscoring the radical lengths abortion advocates will go to dehumanize the vulnerable.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-2026-02-17T225130.347.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-2026-02-17T225130.347.png","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/planned-parenthood-expert-claims-infants-toddlers-may-not-be-conscious-or-feel-pain#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Life","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/category\/life"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Planned Parenthood expert claims infants, toddlers may not be conscious or feel pain"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","name":"IFN","description":"International Family News Network","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization","name":"iFamNews","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"iFamNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","https:\/\/x.com\/iFamNewsEN"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/633bdb7ac2496c9b9304ce62d071cdfa","name":"IFN English","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f16ce95b558ae6f6eb9ae2f68122482a2c61696af2a8fc343c2e10f981a959d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f16ce95b558ae6f6eb9ae2f68122482a2c61696af2a8fc343c2e10f981a959d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f16ce95b558ae6f6eb9ae2f68122482a2c61696af2a8fc343c2e10f981a959d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"IFN English"},"description":"Articles published by the English iFamNews editorial team.","sameAs":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/iFamNewsEN","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCMVyIt4z9BANW3d09kwfUpw"],"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/ifamnews-staff"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274177,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274175\/revisions\/274177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}