![]() ![]() They will also need to be able to travel to a clinic and get together the money for the procedure within the time allowed. “There will a small minority of people who know their body really well” and immediately recognize they are pregnant who will be able to get an abortion under the new law, Romanos said. But, said Romanos, the law, which is slated to take effect later this year if not challenged by the court, will likely ban nearly all abortions in the state. In Ohio, the precise requirements for determining the presence of a heartbeat will be up to the Ohio Department of Health. Some doctors, she said, might choose to perform an abdominal ultrasound instead, and such a test cannot detect a heartbeat until around eight to 12 weeks’ gestation. The Ohio heartbeat bill, signed into law in April, does not specifically require a transvaginal ultrasound, said Jamieson Gordon, director of communications and marketing at Ohio Right to Life. Meanwhile, some supporters of the bills argue that they might allow abortion slightly later in pregnancy than six weeks. Planned Parenthood refers to the bills as six-week bans. Some reproductive rights groups argue that the term “heartbeat” bill is a misnomer, since the fetus does not yet have a heart at six weeks’ gestation - the cardiac activity detectable at that time comes from tissue called the fetal pole, as OB-GYN Jen Gunter has written. Six weeks’ gestation is just shortly after most pregnant women miss their first period, meaning many women don’t know they are pregnant at this stage. Catherine Romanos, a doctor who performs abortions in Ohio and a fellow with the group Physicians for Reproductive Health. That’s when a doctor can detect “a flicker of cardiac motion” on a transvaginal ultrasound, according to Dr. Reproductive rights groups say the bills amount to a ban on abortion at about six weeks’ gestation. The bills do not cite a specific gestational time limit for abortions, which has led to some debate. “No other law allows for the killing of an innocent child for the crime of his or her father,” the Faith2Action FAQ states. The legislation does not include an exception for rape or incest. If a heartbeat is present, the doctor is prohibited from performing an abortion, unless it is necessary to save the mother’s life or “to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” The model legislation says that if a patient is seeking an abortion, the doctor must use “standard medical practice” to determine whether the fetus has a heartbeat. (Faith2Action has not responded to Vox’s requests for comment.) “While not the beginning of life, the heartbeat is the universally recognized indicator of life,” the group states in an FAQ on its website. Heartbeat bills around the country are based on model legislation written by Faith2Action, which bills itself as “the nation’s largest network of pro-family groups.” ![]() Heartbeat bills ban abortion very early in pregnancy And banning abortion just six weeks into pregnancy may be a way to do that. A few years ago, such bans were considered too extreme even by some anti-abortion groups, said Rachel Sussman, the national director of state policy and advocacy at Planned Parenthood Action Fund.īut with Donald Trump in the White House and Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, abortion opponents around the country are eager to challenge Roe v. Whatever happens in the courts, the rise of heartbeat bills in 2019 is a sign of where the abortion debate is today. And on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups challenged the Georgia law. In May, for instance, a federal court blocked such a law in Mississippi. No heartbeat bills have yet gone into effect, and all have or are likely to be challenged in court. Some have suggested that it could even lead to murder charges for women who have abortions - but other experts say the consequences are far from clear. It doesn’t explicitly exempt women who perform their own abortions with drugs, leading to speculation about whether they would also be subject to criminal charges. The bill also includes a penalty for those who perform abortions of up to 10 years in prison. Krystal Redman, the executive director of Spark Reproductive Justice Now, a group that works on reproductive rights and other issues for women of color and queer and trans people in the South. But reproductive rights advocates and doctors say the laws, which prohibit abortion before many women know they are pregnant, amount to a near-total ban on the procedure. The bills prohibit abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Georgia is the fourth state to pass such a law this year alone. Brian Kemp in early May signed into law a so-called “heartbeat” bill, banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy. ![]()
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