Tag Archives: Heartbeat bill

The Heartbeat Bill has shown to be successful reducing abortions by 60%

Important Takeaways:

  • Abortions Dropped Almost 60% In Texas After New Abortion Law Took Effect, Data Shows
  • The Heartbeat Act bans abortions after a heartbeat can be detected, which is generally six weeks into a pregnancy. The legislations has faced a bevy of challenges from pro-choice groups, but the U.S. Supreme Court chose in late January to reject calls to prevent the law from taking effect while it is being litigated.
  • Texas Health and Human Services released data showing that 2,197 abortions had taken place in the state during September 2021, the first month after the law took effect. There had been 5,404 abortions in August 2021.
  • The Heartbeat Act has proven uniquely resilient to legal challenges because it does not impose consequences on women seeking abortions. Instead, it deputizes citizens to file lawsuits against anyone who aides a woman in obtaining an abortion, whether it be the individual who actually carries out the abortion or support staff at a clinic.

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Georgia governor to sign heartbeat abortion ban, joining a U.S. movement

FILE PHOTO: Anti-abortion marchers rally at the Supreme Court during the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – Georgia’s Republican governor on Tuesday is expected to sign a bill outlawing abortion if a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat, part of a concerted effort to restrict abortion rights in states across the country.

Governor Brian Kemp praised the bill when it passed the state legislature in March and has scheduled a signing ceremony at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), which would make him the fourth governor to sign such a law since mid-March.

Anti-abortion campaigners have intensified their efforts since Donald Trump was elected president and appointed two conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, hopeful they can convince the right-leaning court to re-examine the landmark case Roe v. Wade that established a woman’s right to an abortion in 1973.

Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have passed heartbeat laws recently, and Iowa passed one last year. Courts have blocked the Iowa and Kentucky laws, and the others face legal challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia has vowed to sue to stop this law.

Even so, anti-abortion advocates have seized the political and judicial opening in their favor, introducing measures in 15 states to ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, according to Rewire.News, a site specializing in the issue.

That has raised concerns among abortion-rights advocates about expanding “abortion deserts,” described as major cities that are at least 100 miles (160 km) from an abortion provider.

Between Georgia and Mississippi is Alabama, where the House has passed a bill that would ban all abortions unless the mother’s life was threatened and the Senate is likely to vote on it this week, raising the prospect of a giant abortion desert in the Southeast.

Ushma Upadhyay, professor of reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, said she was concerned for low-income women who lack the means to travel.

“This is basic health that should be available to all women regardless of where they live, how much money they make or how many children they have,” Upadhyay said.

Abortion-rights supporters see the heartbeat bills as virtual bans because fetal heartbeats can be detected as early as six weeks, when women may not be aware they are pregnant.

Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act would permit later abortions in medical emergencies. In cases of rape or incest, the woman would be required to file an official police report.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Iowa passes ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion ban, most restrictive in U.S.

Opponents of a California law, requiring anti-abortion pregnancy centers to post signs notifying women of the availability of state-funded contraception and abortion, hold a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Chung

By Barbara Goldberg

(Reuters) – Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the most restrictive abortion ban in the United States on Wednesday, outlawing the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected, often at six weeks and before a woman realizes she is pregnant.

The Senate voted 29-17 to pass the House of Representatives-approved bill, according to the legislature’s online voting tallies. The bill now goes to Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, an abortion opponent, who has not said publicly whether she will sign it into law.

The legislation is aimed at triggering a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision which established that women have a constitutional right to an abortion, activists on both sides of the issue said.

Abortion opponents aim to land abortion questions back in front of the nation’s top court, where they believe the 5-4 conservative majority could sharply curtail abortion access or ban it outright.

“We created an opportunity to take a run at Roe v. Wade – 100 percent,” said Republican state Senator Rick Bertrand of Sioux City, who said the legislation is designed to be “thrust into the court” that has become more conservative following President Donald Trump’s appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Spokeswoman Becca Lee of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which supports access to abortion, called it an “intentionally unconstitutional ban on 99 percent of safe, legal abortion, designed to challenge Roe v. Wade.”

“The bill weaponizes fetal heartbeat, which is by all accounts an arbitrary standard that bans abortion long before the point of fetal viability,” Lee said in an email to Reuters.

Mississippi’s Republican governor in March signed into law a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions, sparking an immediate court challenge by abortion rights advocates.

A similar court challenge is underway in Kentucky, which in April enacted a ban on a common abortion procedure from the 11th week of pregnancy.

The newest Iowa bill, which the state Senate passed early Wednesday after overnight wrangling by lawmakers, requires any woman seeking an abortion to undergo an abdominal ultrasound to screen for a fetal heartbeat. If one is detected, healthcare providers are barred from performing an abortion.

Among the few exceptions are if the woman was raped or a victim of incest and has reported that to authorities.

The bill would ban most abortions in the state and was passed in the final days of the Iowa legislative session.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)

Note from Editor:  Links to our shows with  Janet Porter and Congressman Tom DeLay.

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