Last week the Nebraska State Legislature advanced LB 626, which is commonly known as the Nebraska Heartbeat Act. This bill would limit most abortions to the sixth week of pregnancy when heartbeats are normally detected within developing babies. The primary intention of the bill is to put strict limitations on abortions which are performed for the convenience of the mother, rather than for medical reasons.
On January 6, 2023 Medical News Today, published an article entitled, “When does a fetus have a heartbeat?”That peer reviewed article states that “Cardiac tissue starts to pulsate at around 5 – 6 weeks of pregnancy, registering as a heartbeat on the ultrasound, though the heart has not developed yet.” So, we know scientifically when a baby receives a heartbeat. Whenever an abortion is performed after the sixth week of pregnancy, it can rightfully be said that such an abortion stops a beating heart. A beating heart is universally understood around the world as a sign of life, so stopping a beating heart without a justifying reason should be viewed as an act of murder.
LB 626 is a good fit for Nebraska and today I would like to tell you why I believe that is the case. First, limiting abortions to the sixth week of pregnancy when heartbeats are normally first detected represents a much better demarcation of when human life begins than viability. This is so, because heartbeats can be scientifically detected with ultrasound machines, but there is no scientific way to detect viability.
