Remember the Heartbeat Bill
In May of this year, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the Heartbeat Bill into law. Remembering that Governor Kemp stated, “Georgia is a state that values life. Georgia has led the fight in the antiabortion movement sparking outrage with actress and women rights activist Alyssa Milano and 50 other celebrities who took a letter to Governor Kemps office. Celebrities threatened to boycott the state of Georgia over the Heartbeat Bill law. Georgia was the 4th state to banish abortions after 6 weeks or a heartbeat is detected.
The first states to banish abortions were Arkansas and North Dakota in 2013. The Heartbeat Bill was originally brought from Ohio it was activist Janet Porter with her organization Faith2Action who set the groundwork in 2011 for HB 125. Representative Republican Faith2Action sent heart balloons to the Republican legislators who sponsored the first bill. The Heartbeat Bill states that if a heartbeat is detected the baby is protected. The bill requires that a person who intends to perform or induce abortion must take the necessary medical procedures with the pregnant woman to determine if the unborn baby has a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, the bill did not pass in 2011. However, Ohio became the third state to pass the Heartbeat Bill in 2016. As many as 16 states have introduced measures to ban abortions at 6 weeks into the pregnancy. These states have worked to propose new legislation to ban abortion in 2019 Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Some of these states still remain in the fight and the battle continues.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 43 states prohibit abortions except when necessary to protect the mother’s life or after a specified point in the pregnancy. Statistics chart 37 states require some type of parental permission when dealing with minors making a decision to have an abortion. Including 41 states require abortions to be performed by a licensed physician. 19 states require a hospital to perform the abortion after a specified point of pregnancy. Approximately 18 states require a second physician after a certain point of pregnancy and 20 states have laws that prevent partial-birth abortions. 16 states pay for all or most medically necessary for Medicaid enrollees within the state.33 states and the District of Columbia prohibit the use of state funds except when the woman’s life is in danger or in the case of rape or incest. It was since 1973, the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade Americans have challenged abortion. We have yet to see where this legislation will take us in the future.
