New Legislation Would Require Women to Hear Fetus’ Heartbeat Prior to Abortion
By micro99 at 11 November, 2008, 11:25 am
In a new bill proposed in the Texas state legislature on Monday, women who seek to have an abortion would be forced to listen to the heartbeat and see ultrasound images of the fetus before having the procedure.
Republican State Representative Frank Corte, who has previously sought regulation to restrict abortion in Texas, introduced a bill on Monday which would require physicians to make sure women who are seeking an abortion hear the heartbeat and see the images two hours prior to the procedure.
The abortion bill was just one of 423 bills and proposed constitutional amendments introduced to the Texas legislature for their 81st legislative session which will begin January 13, 2009.
Corte’s policy director Kathi Seay told the Houston Chronicle that the so-called “informed consent” bill is not looking to discourage women from having an abortion, but to have more information before going through with the procedure.
Pro-choice groups say they will fight the legislation.
During the 2003 legislative session, Texas passed the “Women’s Right to Know Act” which requires doctors to tell the woman of the benefits offered to her before, during and after childbirth.
Informing the woman seeking to commit an abortion to listen to the heart beat and see the innocent life that would potentially have to die before having the procedure would allow her to take a second chance to think about her actions and also her options. I believe this is a great idea, with respect to pro-choice advocates, although it is not a total turn around for pro-life supporters, it at least allows the woman to choose an alternative like adoption or even keeping the child.
This bill is ridiculus. People (I should say old white men)in the Senate act as if women are suddenly blind, dumb and deaf the moment that they become pregnant and think about abortion. Women do not suddenly wake up one morning and decide that today is her abortion date without 1, knowing the other options such as childbirth (ever woman knows that the end result of a pregnant is chilbirth - barring miscarraiges) and that if they could not care for a child that adoption is available. We do not go around and mandate informing potential mothers that are choosing to place in adoption centers that their is the option of abortion, the benefits and the cons, or their option of parenthood again with the pros and cons. I’m not going around and trying to pass laws that would mandate such a woman to know some of the horrors of adoption or parenthood, and believe me there are MANY cases in which children are abused by either their adoptive parents (or get pushed from foster care home to another) or by frustrated young parents that are not responsible enough to have a child in the first place but get conned or guilted into doing so.
A heartbeat does not make a life. It is an organ that is used to pump blood and not that necessary to sustain life of the whole as long as something pumps the blood through the body (machines, cpr) What is absolutely vital is the brain whose job cannot be replaced by any machine and cannot start against once it has stopped (unlike ever other organ in the body)
Maybe it should also be mandated the very real and much more dangerous harmful affects of continuing a pregnancy and childbirth and what it can do to the body. Considering that childbirth is more than 7 times more dangerous that an early abortion I think that deserves more valid consideration than this bill.