Inaccurate beliefs on when fetuses can feel pain often inform people's stances on abortion, according to a new study.
The University of Otago's Centre for Science Communication quizzed 374 people in the United States on their beliefs about abortion, and when people thought a fetus could feel pain.
"Anti-choice" participants were more likely than pro-choice to believe a fetus could perceive pain before the 23rd week of pregnancy.
Lead author Emma Harcourt says this timeline is incorrect.
"The current medical consensus is that it is unlikely fetal pain perception is possible before the 29th or 30th weeks of pregnancy. However, we found that most people believe that the capacity to feel pain develops much earlier and that this was particularly evident in participants with anti-abortion views."
Close to 80 percent of the female participants believed a fetus could feel pain before the third trimester of pregnancy, whereas just 56 percent of men believed the same.
Harcourt says this could be because women are often the target of pro-life disinformation campaigns which "systematically overstate" the pace at which embryos develop.
Most Black people and Catholics, alongside those with advanced degrees, did not think fetal pain was possible before the third trimester.
"It's possible that having an accelerated view of fetal development causes people to oppose abortion," says Harcourt.
"However, it is equally possible that having anti-abortion views alters how people perceive a fetus in utero and affects their willingness to engage with information that doesn't conform with their beliefs."
The study was published this week in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
