Pain Theory in Abortion - NYTimes.com Re "Theory on Pain Is Driving Rules for Abortions" (front page, Aug. 2): As a physician, I am guided in my work by facts and evidence. While opponents of legal abortion claim that fetuses experience pain in order to justify restrictions on later abortion, the best scientific and medical research available does not support this assertion. Ample evidence suggests that at 20 weeks after fertilization, the fetus lacks the physical structures necessary to experience pain. As a provider who cares for women, I know that abortion is a part of the continuum of reproductive health care; that one in three American women has an abortion in her lifetime; and that when abortion is less accessible, it becomes less safe. I wish that lawmakers would recognize these realities, take facts and evidence - not bad science and conjecture - into consideration, and stop interfering with a woman's private medical decisions. NANCY STANWOOD Board Chairwoman Physicians for Reproductive Health New Haven, Aug. 2, 2013