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| Stacey Abrams - Getty Image |
Abortion and heartbeat hypocrites
By Robert G. Marshall ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 27, 2022
Georgia Democrat Governor candidate Stacey Abrams, who never conceded her 2018 loss in the Governor’s race, is in denial again! Abrams’ successful 2018 opponent, Gov. Brian Kemp, signed a heartbeat bill in 2019 which now protects preborn children as soon as a heartbeat can be detected. But Abrams imaginatively if ludicrously stated (9/21/22) that, “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks…. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”
Regarding abortion, Stacey Abrams told Alyssa Far, co-host of The View, that she rejected any limits on abortion, noting, “Arbitrary politically-defined timelines are deeply problematic…. The limit should not be made by politicians who don’t understand basic biology or apparently basic morality.…” Of course, abortion promoters like Abrams want to avoid using words like “heartbeat” because everyone knows that stopping a heartbeat kills a human being. And every abortion does stop a living, preborn child’s beating heart.
The “progressive” Media Matters opined, “Fox’s Harris Faulkner falsely stated, ‘What doctors will say is that between five to seven weeks is where that [a fetal heartbeat] happens.’ In reality, there’s a consensus among medical experts that ‘the electrical activity picked up on an ultrasound at six weeks is not the sound of a heart beating.’” Really? Then what exactly is beating?
Of course the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) agrees with Abrams. The Guardian reports, according to ACOG’s president Ted Anderson, that, “ACOG does not use the term ‘heartbeat’ to describe these legislative bans on abortion because it is misleading language, out of step with the anatomical and clinical realities of that stage of pregnancy.” But abortion apologists are flat wrong in denying basic biology and established scientific findings.
Even the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology for August, 2020 reported on a study “of 617 pregnant women enrolled in the Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction.… Each participant had a single ultrasound with a detectable fetal heartbeat between 6 weeks 0 days and 8 weeks 6 days.” So ACOG’s own professional medical-scientific journal used the term “heartbeat” despite ACOG’s president, Dr. Anderson, claiming “heartbeat” was out of step with “science and evidence.”
In 1970, three years before the Roe decision, and at the height of the so-called abortion reform movement in America, an editorial was published in the September 1970 issue of California Medicine discussing the tug of war between the Quality of Life ethic and the Sanctity of Life ethic. From The editorial:
In defiance of the…Western ethic of intrinsic and equal value for every human life…abortion is becoming accepted by society as moral, right and even necessary.… Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing.... The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception…. [T]his schizophrenic sort of subterfuge is necessary because while a new ethic is being accepted the old one has not yet been rejected.
Some 52 years later, abortionists, the liberal media and the Democrat Party refuse to recognize the inherent value of the child before birth. I wish that pro-life Republican Congressional candidates and/or pro-life organizations would run TV and social media ads about Stacey Abrams deceitful words, and highlight the fact that abortion does in fact stop the beating heart of a defenseless child!
Fetal Heartbeat Facts
It is important to understand the two methods for dating the child’s prenatal age during pregnancy. The Charlotte Lozier Institute notes:
Weeks of fertilization or conception refers to the beginning of human life at pregnancy. Weeks of gestation refers to pregnancy based on the woman’s last menstrual period, in which the number of weeks referenced is typically 2 weeks greater than fertilization age (e.g., a human embryo is 0 weeks old at fertilization, which is 2 weeks of gestation).
Pro-lifers should also know by now how they are being propagandized. According to the style guide for the prominent British publication, Guardian, journalists are instructed:
Abortion: Use pro-choice, not pro-abortion; and use anti-abortion, not pro-life. Anti-choice can be used when talking about opposition to all reproductive rights, including abortion, birth control, family planning etc. In reference to US legislation, six-week abortion ban is preferable to foetal heartbeat bill, unless quoting someone talking about the “heartbeat bill.”
Quotes about the Heartbeat of Preborn Children
“The first time you hear your baby’s heartbeat is a magical moment, whether you are a first-time parent or not.… A baby’s heart will start beating at 5 to 6 weeks of pregnancy.… From 6 to 7 weeks, your doctor can assess your baby’s heartbeat to understand your pregnancy better.”
“When there is no heartbeat at 6 weeks, it is obvious to worry about fetal health.… A normal fetal heart rate (FHR) is measured in beats per minute (BPM) and is usually between 120 and 160 bpm. You can measure it sonographically during 6 weeks.”
U. S. National Library of Medicine:
“Fetal development: Medical Encyclopedia: …Weeks 6 to 7 Baby’s heart continues to grow and now beats at a regular rhythm. This can be seen by vaginal ultrasound. Blood pumps through the main vessels.”
“Pregnancy…week 6…. Your baby’s heart beats about 105 times a minute. Her nose, mouth, fingers, toes and ears are forming and begin to take shape.”
United Kingdom—National Health Service:
“You and your baby at 5 weeks …The heart is forming as a simple tube-like structure. Your baby already has some of its own blood vessels and blood begins to circulate. A string of these blood vessels connects you to your baby and will become the umbilical cord.”
American Pregnancy Association:
“Gestational Age Week 7 (Fetal Age: 5 weeks) … from 6½-7 weeks is the time when a heartbeat can be detected and viability can be assessed. A normal heartbeat at 6-7 weeks would be 90-110 beats per minute. The presence of an embryonic heartbeat is an assuring sign of the health of the pregnancy.”
“A baby’s heart begins to beat on day 21 after conception.”
“Fetal heart development typically begins in the third week of gestation. The heart starts beating in the fifth week, which is defined as only week three in terms of fetal age.”
“Usually, heartbeat can be detected by vaginal ultrasound somewhere between 6 ½-7 weeks. The heartbeat may have started around six weeks, although some sources place it even earlier, at around 3-4 weeks after conception.”
“…the ‘whoosh whoosh’ of your little one’s little organ is one of the first things doctors look (and listen) for. A fetal heartbeat may first be detected by a vaginal ultrasound as early as 5 1/2-6 weeks. Your baby’s heart starts beating approximately 22 days after conception. It won’t be detectable yet—even though it’s beating an average of 110 times a minute. But thanks to ultrasound technology, you (and your doctor) should be able to hear baby’s heartbeat soon.
“The heart of an embryo starts to beat from around 5 to 6 weeks of pregnancy.
“Hearing a baby’s heartbeat for the first time is an exciting milestone for new parents-to-be. A fetal heartbeat may first be detected by a vaginal ultrasound as early as 5 1/2-6 weeks after gestation.”
Bob Marshall served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and was the chief House sponsor of the 2006 voter-approved Virginia Marriage Amendment and a ban on late term abortion. He recently wrote Reclaiming the Republic: How Christians and Other Conservatives Can Win Back America (TAN Books). Previously, he co-authored Blessed are the Barren, a social history of Planned Parenthood (Ignatius Press). Finally, don’t miss Bob’s Civics Lesson for Catholics in the Catholic Culture Podcast Episode 17. See the full bio.
The whole heart beat issue is moot because the child is alive, human, at conception. Yes, when we can hear the heart beating we are aware of the life in the womb but the life exists prior to that and abortion, even before the detection of the heart beat is murder. There is no magic moment before which abortion is acceptable. To paraphrase Dr Seuss,” A child’s a child no matter how small”!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't exactly say it's moot. Heartbeat laws save lives. But I completely agree that abortion should be outlawed, NO EXCEPTIONS, from conception. The bogus "life of mother" exception should be outlawed because both mother and baby can be watched carefully and both supported and the baby induced if necessary. If a mother has medical issues, abortion is dangerous, maybe even more dangerous, than waiting. There are moms with kidney diseases who have improved when their babies in utero support kidney function. A friend of mine whose had four kidney transplants said her doctor told her she would be better if she could always be pregnant. A pro-life doctor who recognizes that he has TWO patients strives to treat and protect them both.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the heartbeat laws save lives. I guess my point was that people who truly believe that abortion is acceptable before the heartbeat is detected do not understand human reproduction or choose to ignore the facts.
ReplyDeleteI would support a law that anyone denying that a "fetus" has a heartbeat be late-term aborted as an adult.
ReplyDelete