TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) – A Florida legislator has introduced a bill banning abortions of babies with a detectable heartbeat, modeled after the Texas Heartbeat Act.
HB 167, if passed, would require abortionists to check for a baby’s heartbeat before deciding to carry out an abortion, and prohibits them from “knowingly performing” an abortion if they detect a fetal heartbeat or fail to perform the test. The baby’s heartbeat is ordinarily detectable by about six weeks gestation.
The Florida bill, introduced by Rep. Webster Barnaby (R-27), also mirrors the Texas Heartbeat Act’s private method of enforcement. It would allow people to sue those who perform the abortion or knowingly “aid or abe[t]” the abortion by paying for or reimbursing its cost through insurance or other means. It would not allow prosecution of the woman who sought the abortion.
“Like the Texas law, the Florida legislation does not include exceptions for pregnancies that occur from rape or incest, but makes an exception if a physician believes a ‘medical emergency’ exists,” ABC News noted.
The bill amends Florida statutes to replace the term “fetus” with “unborn child,” and expressly states that it does not “create or recognize a right to abortion before a fetal heartbeat is detected.”
If passed, the bill would save thousands upon thousands of lives. Most abortions in the United States are committed after six weeks gestation.
The Texas Heartbeat Act effectively banned “Eighty-five percent of abortions that previously would have been occurring,” The Federalist reported, saving about 100 babies a day.
As NBC reported, after the Texas abortion ban was enacted, “all 11 of the Planned Parenthood health centers in Texas” had “stopped scheduling visits” for “abortions past six weeks of pregnancy,” and that Whole Woman’s Health said its four clinics in Texas would also comply with the law.
Eleven states, including Florida, “have announced intentions or plans to model legislation after” the Texas Heartbeat Act, according to ABC News.
Some doctors claim that unborn children at six weeks gestation don’t have a “real” heartbeat, because their heart valves are not yet fully formed, and so their hearts do not yet make the noise produced by the opening and closing of those valves.
Yet video footage of the unborn child shows that already at four and a half weeks, children have a rapidly beating heart pumping blood and nutrients throughout their bodies. The heart can be seen changing color as blood enters and leaves its chambers with each beat.
Mothers typically have their first visit with an OB-GYN when they are six, seven, or eight weeks pregnant, and presence of a fetal heartbeat is one of the first things the doctor checks as a marker of a healthy unborn baby at that age.
PETITION UPDATE (9/26/2020):
With President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we are closer than we have been in decades to seeing Roe vs. Wade overturned.
We now encourage the Senate to confirm Barrett as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Judge Barrett has a fantastic track recond on sanctity of life issues, has seven children, and is a devout believer. She is the perfect remedy for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's radical pro-abortionism.
Please READ the full story here: 'BREAKING: Trump nominates Catholic mom of 7 Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court'
And then, please SIGN this petition telling the High Court that it's now time to end the activist Roe vs. Wade judgment. Thank you!
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PETITION UPDATE (6/29/2020):
In a decision which has imperiled more abortion-minded women, sentenced more preborn to death, and upset pro-lifers across the nation,the United States Supreme Court decided 5-4 to strike down a Louisiana law requiring basic medical precautions in the event of abortion complications, with Chief Justice John Roberts reversing his own past decision to uphold a similar Texas law.
Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, which held that the Louisiana law was unconstitutional for the simple fact that it was “almost word-for-word identical” to the Texas one the court already struck down in 2016.
In his concurring opinion, Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged that he had “joined the dissent in Whole Woman’s Health and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided. The question today however is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case.”
We call on the Supreme Court to stop supporting the culture of death and overturn Roe vs Wade, now.
PETITION UPDATE (1/20/2020):
Hundreds of thousands of people will gather in Washington, D.C., this coming Friday, January 24th, for the March for Life. They will be praying for an end to Roe vs Wade, as the Supreme Court will hear a crucial, abortion-related case later this year in March. United our voices can change the course of history. Sign this petition TODAY! (LEARN MORE BELOW)
PETITION UPDATE (1/3/2020):
In advance of the Supreme Court's hearing arguments in an important abortion case later this year in March, 207 U.S. Senators and Representatives have signed amicus briefs supporting a Louisiana law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital nearby an abortion center.
Some of these supporting briefs also suggest that now is the time to reconsider Roe vs Wade as sound law.
Please SIGN this petition, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Roe vs Wade.
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More than 60 million Americans have been slaughtered in their mother's wombs as a result of Roe v. Wade. This activist, unconstitutional ruling in 1973 has left countless women emotionally and psychologically scarred.
It was believed by many that Roe would be overturned in 1992 with Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Despite having eight Republican-appointed judges at the time, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold it.
Since then, major gains have been made in the fight for life, and many lives have been saved.
However, Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, leaving millions of defenseless pre-born children vulnerable to murder.
According to a 2016 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35% of aborted babies are African American, despite black women only making up six percent of the U.S. population. 19% of aborted babies are Hispanic.
We thus again call on the court to do everything they can to end Roe vs Wade.
Now is the time for pro-lifers to join together and ensure that all of God's children have a right to life.
Roe v. Wade must come to an end!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/supreme-court-strikes-down-louisiana-abortion-regulations
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/over-200-congressmen-as-us-supreme-court-to-reconsider-roe-v-wade
Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a long-time proponent of heartbeat bills in the state, said of this most recent effort, “It’s time to start saving the lives of innocent unborn children in Florida.” He accused “Republicans in name only” – RINOs – of having “stopped progress every step of the way” in previous attempts at proposing a heartbeat law in the state.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Texas’s heartbeat law on November 1, 2021. The court could rule on it – and Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban – anytime between now and June 2022.