Editor’s note: Ellen Castellano is a trained nurse who has served as a sidewalk counselor outside a Maryland abortion clinic for eight years. At a hearing today on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act at the Annapolis State House, she offered the testimony of a whistleblower — who must remain anonymous — about the fetal pain she has witnessed during late-term abortions.

Her remarks regarding Maryland House Bill HB0975 — including the stunning description of the pain babies about to be aborted endure — are provided below:

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, March 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — No one is more qualified to testify on the reality of fetal pain than someone who has participated in thousands of late-term abortions. The testimony I’m sharing comes from a woman who worked for years in a Maryland clinic.

She assisted with the lethal injection on the first day of the two- to four-day abortions of babies who were from 16 to 35 weeks gestation. No anesthesia is given to the baby. The ultrasound-guided injection is administered through the mother’s abdomen or cervix into the baby’s heart, head, or the amniotic fluid in order to stop the baby’s heart.

Immediately, the ultrasound reveals the baby’s intrauterine reactions to the lethal injection. These clearly visible signs of fetal pain continue until the baby dies, usually in five to 30 minutes. But a sonogram isn’t needed to see the mother’s entire abdomen erupting with the rapid movements of the baby, who is trying to get away. Everyone in the delivery room can feel and see the violent thrashing of the baby still inside the mother, trying to escape the sharp needle and the stinging medication.

“It’s a slow, painful death, and anyone who has ever seen a late-term abortion knows that babies feel pain.” Despite the “obvious pain to the baby during and after,” the injection often fails to kill the baby, and the baby needs to be re-injected two, three, or four days in a row, and it still doesn’t stop the heart. It was not uncommon for a baby to need multiple fetal injections even in one day to avoid a live birth.

Do women know this will be painful for their babies? “No, the physician says that her sedation will cross the placenta and the baby will not feel anything.” In reality, the baby still reacts to the pain, and when the mothers feel their reaction, “they usually burst into tears at that point.”

Don’t late-term abortions save the lives of mothers?

No — it never happened once at that busy office. With women “over seven months pregnant, we took any excuse: financial, emotional, boyfriend gone, drug use, anything, and then we coached them on how to say it was a life-or-death situation for documentation purposes.”

And what about abortions for fetal anomalies or rape?

Less than 1% of their late-terms happened for these situations. So if 99% of the babies are healthy, and the women’s maladies are fictional, then most of these brutal late-term abortions are elective, repeat, elective abortions!

Legislators, I ask you to lead the way and dial back our liberal, barbaric law. Pass this bill and ban abortions after 20 weeks.