“There is no heartbeat.” This is the latest in a string of arguments espoused by abortion advocates to dehumanize preborn human beings. But it’s also the worst sentence a parent of a preborn child can hear.
From the moment the Texas Heartbeat Act hit the legislative floor, abortion proponents have been quick to attempt to dehumanize the most vulnerable humans among us. Because the Texas Heartbeat Act restricts abortion to before a preborn child’s heartbeat can be detected (it can be detected around six weeks, though the heart begins beating about 21 days, or three weeks, after fertilization), abortion advocates began claiming that this heartbeat isn’t really a heartbeat at all.
The New York Times is the latest abortion-friendly media to jump on this abortion euphemism trend, arguing that the baby’s heart at six weeks is “only a primitive tube of cardiac cells that emit electric pulses and pump blood” — and therefore, the conclusion is that it is okay to kill that child. But electric pulses and pumping blood are the exact actions of the heart. Read the words of scientists and doctors proving that the preborn child’s heart is beating here.
Though the article, “Abortion Opponents Hear a ‘Heartbeat.’ Most Experts Hear Something Else” includes both anti-heartbeat and pro-heartbeat opinions, the headline made it clear that The New York Times is taking the anti-heartbeat side. In doing so, the Times signaled to every woman who has suffered a miscarriage that her baby’s silent heart shouldn’t have broken hers because her baby’s heart never existed in the first place. This is medically and scientifically inaccurate as well as inhumane and cruel. It also signals to women who are considering abortion that if they have an abortion, no life will be lost. It’s on par with a “clump of cells” and “pregnancy tissue” — both euphemisms have been used for decades to dehumanize preborn children.
But after their abortion, women often learn the truth, and this causes them immense suffering.
What I fear most is that heartbeat to be gone
Julie Loin and her husband Mike have four living children and have endured four miscarriages, including two at about 12 weeks of pregnancy. For them, and for countless parents who have survived miscarriages and stillbirths, not hearing their babies’ heartbeats was, and still is, immensely painful.
In 2016, Loin was pregnant with their daughter Rose, whose heartbeat at 11 weeks and five days “was strong” and she was “measuring perfect.” But then came the devastating news.
“It was about four weeks later, at 16 weeks, all of a sudden things were going wrong,” Loin told Live Action News. “I went in and the first thing they check to make sure your baby is okay is the heartbeat. That’s what they go to because they have a heartbeat. They couldn’t find the heartbeat with the Doppler so she brought me in for the ultrasound. And there she was. She had died about two days after we had the ultrasound that last time. So for four weeks, I was holding onto my baby thinking everything was fine. And then the shock. It was a total shock. When we didn’t hear the heartbeat, she showed me the picture of my baby and said, ‘This is where the heartbeat should be and this is where it’s not.’ It’s all about the heartbeat.”
Baby Rose. Photo courtesy of Julie Loin. Do not duplicate.
In the summer of 2021, Loin was pregnant with the couple’s son James. His due date was the day before the anniversary of when she had birthed Rose.
At his first ultrasound, James looked “wonderful.” Loin explained through tears, “Rose was so hard. I went into such a dark place. But with James it was like, I didn’t anticipate that ever happening again. And we had two healthy babies after Rose so it was like, maybe we’re out of the woods. So I got in for the first ultrasound. He had a strong heartbeat. We went into that second ultrasound — and I wanted to make it after the 12 weeks because I knew that if we made it after 12 weeks we were good. So it was 12 weeks and four days and we go in and the ultrasound tech was so kind and she was going as quickly as she could — measuring, typing, measuring, typing. After two minutes, I asked, ‘Can I hear the heartbeat?’ And she looked at me and said the same as the other doctor, ‘This is where your baby’s heartbeat should be.’ I looked at the screen and I just saw my perfect baby. She said he made it to 11 weeks five days. We just missed the 12-week mark again.”
Though everything looked fine and he was measuring beautifully, James had passed away.
“When you experience the loss of your child at any stage even just knowing that there’s life and then there’s not, there’s a wave of coldness that runs through your body, and not seeing the heartbeat was just like this wave that literally took my breath away,” explained Loin.
She added, “Listening to the cadence of my babies’ heartbeats always brought me so much joy, it was a sign of life within me. The thing I fear most when going into an ultrasound is for that heartbeat to be gone. It is the heartbeat, that flicker of life, that promises life and the hope for new beginnings.”
Photo courtesy of Julie Loin. Do not duplicate.
When considering the new pro-abortion push to brush off a preborn child’s heartbeat as mere electrical pulses, Loin said it makes her sad. “I want to get mad, but I’m not,” she said. “It’s a sadness for them that they can’t comprehend what’s going on. It makes me sad. It’s right there. It’s truth. It’s nothing to do with religion. This is a baby’s heartbeat. It is a heartbeat. So for someone to blindly follow these lies just makes me sad.”
READ: Rasmussen poll: More Americans support Texas Heartbeat Act than oppose it
My heart broke
Loin isn’t alone. Countless women who have endured the pain of miscarriage speak of similar experiences. An anonymous and grieving mother wrote, “It felt like forever when [the sonographer] finally said the words, ‘sorry, your baby has no heartbeat’.
“My heart broke as they confirmed that our baby had died. This was the moment where our lives were rewritten in a second. All of those hopes and dreams for the future for her and our little family turned upside down.”
Uncontrollable tears
Another mother said, “[The Ultrasound Tech] sadly confirmed, ‘I’m sorry, there is no heartbeat.’
“As I looked down at my growing belly, the uncontrollable tears started. There is nothing that can prepare you for this experience. The tears. The pain. The loss for a baby that you’ll never get to hold takes over.”
This tiny little life
“We went to the hospital for a scan at ten weeks,” wrote a devastated mother. “The midwife seemed to take ages to speak and then just said ‘I’m very sorry, your baby is only measuring eight weeks and there is no heartbeat.’
“I looked at the screen and there was this tiny little life as still and quiet as anything. My mind was racing, I just couldn’t think straight. […]
“I felt desolate, I couldn’t stop crying. My husband was so gutted but he put a brave face on and focused on looking after me and our little one.”
Devastated was not the word
One mother wrote about her third miscarriage, saying, “This time was different, there was a heartbeat, an amazing little heartbeat. We were so overwhelmed I just sobbed. Finally what we were praying for! Another follow up scan was booked in for 9 weeks to check on progress. The date came round we went in with a deep breath and again everything looked perfect. This could actually be it for us I couldn’t believe it. I was enjoying the sore breasts the expanding waistline, although all these things happened previously this time I could feel it was all positive!
“My 12 week scan came round we walked in worried but with a sense that everything would be OK, but it wasn’t! The scan showed our baby’s heart stopped beating pretty much the day of our last scan…. devastated was not the word.”
The Complete Void
One mother spoke of her miscarriage at 12 weeks, saying, “Never had I contemplated the complete void that you fall into when you hear those words: ‘I’m sorry guys, there’s no heartbeat’.”
The human heart
That heartbeat is the most meaningful sound in the world to parents. It is a sign of life — the sign of life. It is the sound that softens hearts and helps abortion-minded women choose life for their babies. When that heartbeat stops, it means the young life growing in his or her mother’s womb has died. And there is nothing more heartbreaking than the loss of a child.
The only reason that The New York Times and other abortion supporters claim that a preborn human being’s heartbeat isn’t really a heartbeat is to ensure continued support for legalized abortion. When people learn about a preborn child’s heartbeat, they are more likely to oppose abortion — and that’s not good for a million-dollar abortion industry.
“I was never the cause of my babies’ heartbeat to stop — chromosomal problems were the culprit,” said Loin. “I pray no one intentionally stops that life, that heartbeat, that pure innocence and joy.” She asks women considering abortion, “Listen to the heartbeat and imagine the endless joys the future holds all because you listened.”
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