Posted on 02/08/2011 10:28:19 AM PST by ph12321
An unborn child's heartbeat can be detected as soon as 18 days after conception, and supporters of a bill slated to be unveiled in the Ohio Legislature Wednesday say that women should be prohibited from ending pregnancies beyond that milestone.
State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann is planning to unveil the "Heartbeat Bill" and a legislative aide for the Republican tells Fox News that 42 of the 99 representatives in the Ohio state House have signed on to the bill, which would make an exception to the heartbeat rule only in emergency medical situations.
According to 2009 data from the Ohio Department of Health, 56.6 percent of abortions in that state occur in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. And since the fetal heartbeat appears on monitors by six weeks into gestation in most cases, supporters of the bill believe that it could prevent thousands of abortions.
"When the Heartbeat Bill passes, it will be the most protective law in the nation," Janet Folger Porter, president of conservative advocacy group Faith2Action, said in a release. Porter helped craft the bill, and was also instrumental in passing the nation's first ban in partial-birth abortion when she was legislative director of Ohio Right to Life.
While the legislation must still be proposed in the state Senate and a court challenge could derail the plan, advocates for the bill hope that if the Ohio measure is successful, other states will follow suit with similar laws. A website created to tout the bill urges supporters to send heart-shaped balloons to the governor and state representatives by Valentine's Day. A music video on the site features babies dancing to the tune of Nena's "99 Red Balloons" -- retooled with pro-life lyrics.
But pro-choice group NARAL has equated the bill to "political interference" into a private medical issue...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Glad to see someone is using their thinking cap there....
Maybe I'm naive, but it seems to me a lot of laws are "political interference" into private issues - like Obamacare, domestic violence laws, owning or not owning firearms, etc.
...not to mention what food we can eat or what light bulbs we can now use.
I hope it passes. It makes the most sense of any anti-abortion law so far - one would have to be very cold indeed to deny that a distinct heartbeat does not indicate the presence of a distinct and separate life.
Point that fact out to them and you will just get the thousand yard stare for a few seconds then insulted because it’s all they have to fall back on...
But because it does not define life as of the instant of conception, will the pro-life movement treat it with contempt??
I am PROUD to be an Ohioan!
May God be the strength and power behind this life saving bill!
Full of the “D’uh Factor” but I support it!! May God end the Unborn/Newborn Holocaust within my lifetime!!!
“An unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected as soon as 18 days after conception, and supporters of a bill slated to be unveiled in the Ohio Legislature Wednesday say that women should be prohibited from ending pregnancies beyond that milestone.”
I completely agree with this bill and I am one that believes any law making abortion illegal should have the usual mentioned exceptions. All of those exceptions would be covered within the 18 day period.
“But because it does not define life as of the instant of conception, will the pro-life movement treat it with contempt??”
I am betting yes.
Amen! Hallelujah!
No, at least not in the main. I think the great majority will recognize that this bill represents such a huge step forward in saving the lives of the unborn that they will support this.
I hear your concern, and I have great disdain for the incurable dogmatists who seize upon every opportunity to make Better the enemy of Best, but I really believe that the particulars of this bill are so straightforward, and understandable that it will win the agreement of all but the most insensible of them.
When we consider 18 days — scarcely three weeks — against the full 40 week human gestational period, what we see that we're talking about is a bill that extends the protection of the Law to unborn people for nearly 94% of their time in the womb, and I don't think anyone can credibly argue against protecting 94% of the unborn lives in in Ohio on the basis that it's "only" 94% and not 100%.
That isn't an "argument," in my book; its a failing grade on an IQ test.
Who have you been talking to to think that?
Well said!
I don't believe any credible pro-lifer would look down on this bill.
I’ve seen it here on FR several times in the battles between the “Constitutional Amendment” folks and the “Overturn Roe” folks. I am surprised that you haven’t seen those arguments.
I guess the original statement seemed too broad to me. Of course some freepers will be critical of this. Some freepers are mad at the world and critical of everything. I don't count them in the definition of the greater pro-life movement. They're an anomole.
IMO, no legitimate pro-lifer will look at this bill with disdain.
So which is it? 18 days or 42 days? This article does not make clear how the bill is written. 42 days would get more votes than 18 days, IMO.
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