According to specialists, fetuses feel pain like adults from the second trimester onwards.

The gynecologist's statements, to the effect that the fetus feels pain like adults from the second trimester onwards, and even more so in the third, have occurred in '‘The Afternoon’'Cope, commenting on recent public statements to the contrary.

“All scientific societies and the main gynecological colleges have demonstrated that from the second trimester onwards, and even more so in the third, the fetus has already developed sufficient brain neuronal complexity to feel pain very similar to us, to adults,” explains Dr. Orozco.

The moment when the fetus begins to feel pain

Dr. Orozco asserts that medical evidence demonstrates that the brain structures for processing this stimulus develop much earlier than is commonly claimed: starting in the second trimester and even more so in the third (you can consult here the difference between an embryo and a fetus).

Fetal distress during abortion

Even in earlier stages, the gynecologist points out that “from the very first stages of pregnancy, of course, the fetus It responds to blows, it responds when an invasive test is performed… it moves, it's bothered, it defends itself. Undoubtedly there are sensations, there is pain, and of course, when an abortion is performed there is fetal suffering. Science proves it.”.

In her opinion, “claims that the fetus does not suffer any pain or suffering during an abortion are completely wrong. There is no evidence to support this.”.

Carlo V. Bellieni, matching criteria

A similar position to that of Dr. Orozco has been defended by the Italian pediatrician and neonatologist Carlo V. Bellieni, from the University of Siena, one of the researchers who has most extensively studied fetal pain. In a article Published in 2019 in Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, Bellieni argues that pain is a neuroadaptive phenomenon that appears around the middle of pregnancy, approximately between 20 and 22 weeks of gestation, and that it becomes progressively more evident during the rest of the pregnancy.

Bellieni reiterated this thesis in a May 2026 publication in the Journal of Medical Ethics. According to the Italian specialist, there is considerable evidence that, between 20 and 22 weeks after conception, fetal responses to potentially painful stimuli are similar to those of adults from an electrophysiological, chemical, and behavioral perspective. 

“The patient’s word—a kind of ‘unmistakable proof’—would be desirable, but not indispensable when there is strong evidence,” Bellieni writes. Therefore, he believes that analgesia should be used when fetal pain is highly probable.

Other studies

Also significant is a work published in 2025 by Bellieni together with Kanwaljeet JS Anand, Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford Medical School and one of the best-known international researchers in the study of fetal pain. 

The authors conducted a systematic review of 17 clinical studies that had directly observed fetal responses to noxious stimuli. Their conclusion is that pain-related responses appear "from mid-gestation onward," although they call for further research to confirm these results and guide clinical practice.

Post-abortion sequelae

Furthermore, Dr. Orozco has pointed out the long-term psychological consequences suffered by many women after an abortion, "a real phenomenon that medicine observes daily," he notes. cope.es. The doctor states that the official absence of the term "post-abortion syndrome" from international psychiatric classifications does not negate the experience of the patients. "Just because it's not included doesn't mean it doesn't exist.".

Leire Navaridas, founder of Amasuve and post-abortion support worker, speaks of the “trauma of abortion”, and has published the book 'An Abortion After', in which she seeks to make visible through her personal story ‘what happens before-during-after an abortion’.