Iowa Senate passes ‘Heartbill Bill’ banning abortions after detectable heartbeat
On Wednesday, the Iowa Senate passed a pro-life legislation known as the “Heartbeat Bill,” which if put into law would outlaw aborting babies with detectable heartbeats.
The Republican controlled chamber passed the bill 30-20, along party lines.
photo Pawel Loj
There is a second bill which would make it a felony for doctors to commit abortions after detecting a fetal heartbeat. The only exception would be for pregnancies that threaten a mother’s life.
After day 21, the baby’s heartbeat is usually detected on ultrasound.
“This bill is the logical beginning point for all of civil governance,” said Sen. Amy Sinclair, adding that it strikes “at the very heart and soul of what it means to be an American, what it means to be a person.”
Sinclair also asserted that the anti-abortion measure is not a war on women, noting, “roughly fifty percent (50%) of the people we are electing to protect here are indeed women, so in fact a failure to pass this bill would be the true war on women in its most pure sense.
Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, who served on the subcommittee which produced the legislation, said he believes culture has been moving towards a pro-life view for decades, a view that has become repulsed by a “holocaust of death” related to abortion.
“This may be what our culture is ready for,” Schultz continued. “Stopping a beating heart is never health care.”
Planned Parenthood is broadcasting that the Iowa Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Iowa Catholic Bishops, has joined with them and Democrat legislators in opposing the Heartbeat Bill.
The Iowa Catholic Conference was officially “neutral” on the Heartbeat Bill.
