Heartbeat bill
[10][11][12][13][14] Medical professionals advise that a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed.
[16] Efforts to introduce her model law succeeded in passing through political branches of government in about a dozen states but in most cases the courts struck down or blocked similar legislation; however, the Texas Heartbeat Act and analogues subsequently adopted in other states succeeded due to a unique enforcement mechanism that makes challenging the law extremely difficult, and which was upheld by the Supreme Court.
[1][10][19] The heartbeat bills are based on model legislation created by Faith2Action, a conservative Christian ministry from Ohio advocating for abortion restrictions.
[16] Her efforts were not considered mainstream at the time, and the Ohio Right to Life, an anti-abortion group which previously employed Porter, opposed such legislation.
[22][23] The Guttmacher Institute writes that "state policymakers are testing the limits of what the new U.S. Supreme Court majority might allow and laying the groundwork for a day when federal constitutional protections for abortion are weakened or eliminated entirely.
"[21] Texas has taken a novel approach in their wording of the legislation; rather than have the government enforce the law, private citizens are to be allowed to sue the provider or anyone that helps the woman to get an abortion.
The Texas Tribune writes that "supporters of the bill hope this novel provision will trip up legal challenges to the legislation, as without state officials enforcing the ban, there will be nobody for pro-women's rights groups to sue.
[10][11][12][13][14] Jennifer Keats, an OB-GYN at University of California, San Francisco, stated that the embryo's cardiovascular system at six weeks is "very immature".
[31] With specific regard to the North Dakota law, detecting an embryo's heartbeat at six weeks into a pregnancy requires the use of a transvaginal ultrasound, which some members of the abortion-rights movement say is unnecessarily invasive.
However, this is complicated by the fact that, when they are called on to decide whether to have an abortion, many women are still physically and mentally recovering from being raped (and will continue to for an extended period of time).
Furthermore, it requires that judges terminate the parental rights of a man convicted of first-degree rape or certain other sex crimes, leaving a loophole that allows rapists to seek custody of a child conceived as the result of their assault.
However, because the law requires a conviction, activists say that since most sexual assaults are never reported, much less produce a finding of guilt in court, many victims are left vulnerable.
[35] Responding to criticism of the Texas "heartbeat bill", which also does not exempt from its provisions women and girls who have been raped, Governor Greg Abbott asserts that the Act will not force a woman who has been raped to carry a pregnancy to term because the state will "work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets.
"[36] Before Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) were overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), members of the abortion-rights movement criticized heartbeat bills as violating a constitutionally inferred right to privacy.
A similar type of legislation, the Heartbeat Informed Consent Act, was introduced at the national level around the same time by Michele Bachmann; however, it died in committee.
[40] Another law of this variety, introduced by Sharon Weston Broome, was passed by legislators in Louisiana in 2012, as an amendment to a 2010 bill requiring women seeking an abortion to receive an ultrasound of their conceptus.
[49] On May 15, 2018, eleven days after Iowa Governor, Kim Reynolds, signed SF 359 into law, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc., Jill Meadows, and Emma Goldman Clinic (petitioners) filed a lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in state court arguing the fetal heartbeat law violated the Iowa State Constitution.
[50][51][52] On June 1, 2018, Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert entered a preliminary injunction which temporarily blocked the law from going into effect.
[53] On January 22, 2019, the county district judge declared the law to be in violation of the Iowa Constitution and entered a permanent injunction prohibiting its enforcement.
[63] In January 2023, the court overturned the law in a 3–2 split decision, ruling that the 2022 six-week abortion ban violates a woman's right to privacy which is granted by the state constitution.
[115][better source needed] On May 4, 2018, governor Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that would ban abortion in Iowa after a fetal heartbeat is detected, starting July 1, 2018.
[116] On January 22, 2019, a county district judge declared the law to be in violation of Iowa's State Constitution and entered a permanent injunction prohibiting its enforcement.
[124] Damon Thayer, the Senate Republican floor leader said SB 9 "absolutely" was a priority for the chamber and said he would be delighted if it became law and ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court as a means to overturn to Roe v. Wade "It would be the pinnacle of my career," he said.
[158][159] When asked if he would sign a fetal heartbeat bill, Governor Mike Parson said, "I've been pro-life my entire career, and I support that all the time.
[169] A related law was signed in Ohio in 2013 (HB 248)[170] by John Kasich, which mandates, among other things, that doctors who do not test for a fetal heartbeat must be subject to criminal penalties; specifically, "The doctor's failure to do so would be a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to six months in jail, for the first violation and a fourth-degree felony, carrying up to 18 months in jail, for subsequent violations.
[198] A fetal heartbeat bill (HB 2315) was introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 2, 2018, primarily sponsored by Rep Rick Saccone.
[201] The bill, which is entitled "Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Act", was introduced on January 8, 2018, and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
[204] McMaster signed the bill into law on February 18, 2021,[205] but it was blocked by U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis a mere day later following a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood and Greenville Women's Clinic.
The Texas Tribune wrote that "supporters of the bill hope this novel provision will trip up legal challenges to the legislation, as without state officials enforcing the ban, there will be nobody for pro-women's rights groups to sue".
Put it on their website that they're not scheduling appointments after six weeks",[223] in doing so individuals associated with performing abortion halt their practice, and are no longer at risk for conducting the fine.
