Clearfield Republican Rep. Paul Ray has asked legislative attorneys to draft a bill for the 2006 Legislature requiring doctors to inform women who seek abortions after 20 weeks of gestation that the fetus will suffer without anesthesia.

Under Ray's "Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act," pain medication for the fetus would be optional. He acknowledges his goal is to discourage women from going forward with the procedure.

"I hope the mother would think about it," said Ray, a banker. "There's so many families who want children, who would love to adopt."

The anti-abortion rights Davis County lawmaker is the first to reveal his plans to sponsor abortion legislation. But Ray says he knows of three other lawmakers' abortion bills - all being kept secret until the opening of the session in January.

Planned Parenthood CEO Karrie Galloway says Ray and other lawmakers are grandstanding.

"It's an election year," Galloway said. "They're going to take a vote on another abortion bill that has very little meaning in the state of Utah so they can have a political notch in their belts."

All 75 Utah House members and half the state's 29 senators are up for re-election next year. This year, a non-election year, lawmakers sponsored only one abortion bill, and that was abandoned before it was ever debated. The previous election year seven abortion measures were introduced and two passed.

In 2003, the most recent year for Utah abortion statistics, 18 women had abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Utah law requires women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion. And clinic counselors are required to provide a video on fetal development.

Scientists cannot agree on the subject of fetal pain perception. The most recent study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, determined that fetal brains do not sense pain until 29 or 30 weeks.

"Fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester," an abstract of the study states. "Little or no evidence addresses the effectiveness of direct fetal anesthetic or analgesic techniques. Limited or no data exist on the safety of such techniques for pregnant women in the context of abortion."

The authors of that study have been criticized by anti-abortion groups who point out one briefly worked for the National Abortion Rights Action League and another runs an abortion clinic at a hospital.

Ray dismisses the JAMA article as "political."

A former police officer and Zion's bank executive, Ray says he has read competing studies about fetal development and concluded the unborn can feel pain. He has modeled his bill on legislation adopted by Minnesota lawmakers last year. Similar federal legislation has been proposed.

Galloway says Utah lawmakers should wait to see the results of their last foray into abortion legislation two years ago.

Utah's 2004 ban on late-term, "partial-birth" abortions is on hold pending resolution of federal court challenges to similar laws adopted in other states. Failing that, Galloway says, legislators should do more to prevent the cause of abortion - unwanted pregnancies.

"Prevention is where we should be as a compassionate state that cares about families, children and women," Galloway said.

"But our state does absolutely nothing for family planning."