The nation鈥檚 highest court to remain in effect, marking a turning point for abortion opponents who have been fighting to implement stronger restrictions for nearly a decade.
, pegged a 鈥渇etal heartbeat bill,鈥� bans abortions at the point of the 鈥渇irst detectable heartbeat,鈥� which could happen around six weeks into pregnancy, although that timeframe isn鈥檛 specified in the measure. Medical experts say the heart doesn鈥檛 begin to form until the fetus it is at least nine weeks old, and they decry efforts to promote abortion bans by relying on medical inaccuracies.
Nonetheless, at least 13 other states with have adopted similar bans, although courts have blocked them all from being implemented. an unconstitutional assault on women鈥檚 health.
The growing anti-abortion campaign is intended to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion opponents hope will end the constitutional right to abortion as established by the high court in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
THE TERM 鈥楩ETAL HEARTBEAT鈥� TWISTS THE SCIENCE
Advanced technology can detect a first flutter of electric activity within cells in an embryo as early as six weeks. This flutter isn鈥檛 a beating heart, it鈥檚 cardiac activity that will eventually become a heart. An embryo is termed a fetus after the eighth week of pregnancy, and the actual heart begins to form between the ninth and 12th weeks of pregnancy.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a heartbeat, it鈥檚 the motion of the neural cells going up and down tubes in an embryo,鈥� said Dr. Michael Cackovic, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Ohio State University鈥檚 Wexner Medical Center, where some 5,300 babies are born each year.
Cackovic said ultrasound technology significantly advances each year, allowing physicians to provide better information to their patients, but he鈥檚 alarmed that such advances in medicine have been used to promote misinformation.
鈥淲e鈥檙e using technology to detect early cardiac motion, basically it鈥檚 a reflexive moment,鈥� Cackovic added. 鈥淏ut now people are using this technology to forward their agenda.鈥�
In 2013, a pioneering found that while four clearly defined chambers appear in the human heart from the eighth week of pregnancy, they remain 鈥渁 disorganized jumble of tissue鈥� until around the 20th week, much later than previously believed.
ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVIST TAPS INTO EMOTION
The notion that abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy 鈥渟tops a beating heart鈥� is a concept originated by Ohio activist Janet Folger Porter, one of the nation鈥檚 fiercest advocates for banning the procedure.
Porter found that hearts were easy to market and punctuated her decade-long lobbying efforts by distributing heart-shaped balloons and teddy bears, all while side-stepping whether the packaging of the proposal was medically true.
She鈥檚 a polarizing figure, even among Republicans, due to her lobbying stunts and other controversial actions she鈥檚 exercised over the years. Notably, she arranged 鈥渢estimony鈥� via ultrasound by an in utero fetus. She also questions President Barack Obama鈥檚 citizenship and more recently served as spokeswoman for Senate candidate Roy Moore, of Alabama, that he molested a 14-year-old girl.
OTHER STATES JUMP ON BOARD
It took Ohio nearly a decade to sign off on the abortion ban backed by Porter, but other states eventually got on board, after advocates for similar bans mirrored her tactics lobbying lawmakers and using emotive phrases such as 鈥渢ake heart鈥� or 鈥渉ave a heart.鈥�
Arkansas and North Dakota were among the first states to pass these types of bills in 2013. Iowa became the third in 2018. About two dozen states have since introduced similar measures inside their legislatures, but only Texas鈥� version has been enacted.
NOT THE FIRST TIME ABORTION HAS SPARKED WAR OVER WORDS
Plenty of battles have taken place over politically charged, inaccurate or vague terminology over abortion laws.
鈥淒ismemberment abortion鈥� is a term abortion opponents use to describe dilation and evacuation, a common second trimester abortion method. Others used 鈥減artial-birth abortion鈥� to describe what is medically called intact dilation and extraction.
In the fight over fetal cardiac activity, anti-abortion advocates counter that using medical terminology dehumanizes the unborn.