Idaho Senate Passes Bill Banning Abortions When Unborn Baby’s Heart Starts Beating

The Idaho state Senate a pro-life bill Tuesday to protect unborn babies from abortion once their heartbeats are detectable.

Sponsored by state Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Caldwell, and Rep. Steven Harris, R-Meridian, the Fetal Heartbeat Preborn Child Protection Act (Senate Bill 1085) would prohibit abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy.

The bill would take effect only if a court in the U.S. upholds another heartbeat law and several states have passed similiar abortion bans, with some of them in court battles already. States with heartbeat laws include Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee.

Family Policy Alliance of Idaho told LifeNews.com today that it celebrated House passage.

“The bill, which is sponsored by Senator Patti Anne Lodge (R-Caldwell) and Representative Steven Harris (R-Meridian), would protect the right to life of preborn children with a detectable heartbeat. Doctors can easily find a fetal heartbeat as early as six weeks of gestational age through commonly available medical technologies like ultrasonography,” it told LifeNews. “The medical community has found that 95 percent of preborn children with a fetal heartbeat detected early in the pregnancy will survive to term. Obstetricians consider fetal heart activity to be an important milestone in prenatal development and routinely run tests to determine heartrate as an important indicator of a preborn child’s health.”

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Blaine Conzatti, Executive Director for Family Policy Alliance of Idaho, said the unborn baby’s heartbeat is something most expecting parents hear with joy and celebration.

“Thanks to modern medical technology, every new parent now knows the excitement of first hearing their son or daughter’s heartbeat during early prenatal check-ups. This explains why a reputable national poll found that nearly 70 percent of Americans – including 55 percent of Democrats – support this life-affirming legislation,” she said.

“With the encouraging vote on the Senate floor today, Idaho is one step closer to joining the ranks of twelve other states who have passed Heartbeat laws to protect human life. Preborn babies with beating hearts deserve the same constitutional right to life accorded to any other living person,’ she added.

To celebrate and prepare for the House to consider S1183, Family Policy Alliance of Idaho and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise will be hosting a Heartbeat Prayer Rally on the State Capitol steps this Thursday, April 8th at 5:30pm MT.

Americans support strong limits on abortion. A 2019 Hill-HarrisX survey found that 55 percent of voters said they do not think laws banning abortions after six weeks – when an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable – are too restrictive. Gallup polls also consistently have found that a majority of Americans think all or most abortions should be illegal.

Some pro-lifers have renewed hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold an abortion ban and overturn Roe v. Wade. Others, however, are hesitant because of concerns about losing the court battle and being forced to reimburse pro-abortion groups for their legal fees.

Though a majority of the justices are Republican appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts has sided with the liberal justices on a number of occasions.

In 1973, the Supreme Court took away the states’ ability to protect unborn babies from abortion under Roe v. Wade, and instead forced states to legalize abortion on demand. Roe made the United States one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortions after 20 weeks.