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, “I don’t know that [a one-year-old experiences pain] because I don’t know that a one-year-old experiences consciousness.” He added that consciousness emerges “different for different individuals,” refusing to specify a timeline.
The testimony came amid Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit against Missouri’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.
This follows the 2024 voter-approved “Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” which enshrined abortion rights in the state.Ralston’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—not dismissal as non-entities to justify termination.
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.
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