UPDATE, 4/27/21: Idaho Governor Brad Little signed HB 366, the Fetal Heartbeat Preborn Child Protection Act, into law today. According to The Hill, Gov. Little issued a statement, saying, “Idaho is a state that values the most innocent of all lives – the lives of babies. We should never relent in our efforts to protect the lives of the preborn.”
The bill bans abortions after a baby’s heartbeat is detected, around five or six weeks after conception. The legislation makes exceptions for medical emergencies and pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest. #IDLeg pic.twitter.com/YIfGl6O00b
— Brad Little (@GovernorLittle) April 27, 2021
4/23/21: The Idaho Senate passed a pro-life bill on April 21 to ban abortion once an embryonic heartbeat is detectable. The bill will now head to Gov. Brad Little’s (R) desk.
An embryonic heartbeat can be detected on ultrasound as early as six weeks. The bill would ensure that preborn children with a heartbeat would be protected from abortion though the bill contains exceptions for rape, incest, or threats to the mother’s life. In actuality, deliberately destroying a preborn human being is never medically necessary.
A preborn child’s heart begins to beat between 16 and 22 days after fertilization. According to the American Pregnancy Association, by four to five weeks the child has arm and leg buds and the early structures that will become the eyes and ears are forming.
Six weeks from fertilization, when the embryonic heartbeat is detectable.
“Thanks to modern technology, every new parent now knows the excitement of first hearing their son or daughter’s heartbeat during early prenatal check-ups,” said Blaine Conzatti, executive director of Family Policy Alliance of Idaho which applauded the bill’s passage. “This explains why a reputable national poll found that nearly 70 percent of Americans — including 55 percent of Democrats — support this life-affirming legislation.”
READ: First trimester babies aren’t blobs of tissue — they’re amazingly complex
According to the Associated Press, the bill contains a “trigger provision,” and will not go into effect unless a federal appeals court in the U.S. upholds a similar law from another state. Other heartbeat bills throughout the country have faced lawsuits, and proponents of the Idaho bill have hopes that it will help to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion through the U.S.
The current Idaho heartbeat bill is the third version to be reviewed by the Senate. The second version was scrapped after it passed the Senate and went to the House, where wording that would protect abortionists who commit abortions in cases of rape, incest, or medical emergency was questioned. The updated version allows for abortionists to be prosecuted for committing an abortion for any reason once a heartbeat is detected. Under this bill, women who undergo an abortion can sue the abortionist.
“This is good legislation that gives a preborn child the same rights as a mother,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Patti Anne Lodge (R).
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