On Wednesday, September 1st, Governor Greg Abbott signed a law that prohibits abortions as early as six weeks, in the state of Texas. The name of this law, The Heartbeat Act, is in reference to the gestation Texas uses of how an embryo’s cardiac activity can be detected on an ultrasound as soon as six weeks. This law not only is proven to be scientifically incorrect, but also restricts women’s rights with what they can and cannot do with their bodies.
According to The Texas Tribune acticle posted on September 2, 2021, Dr. Nisha Verma, a physician that supplies abortion services at the College of Obstetricions and Gynecologists states that the activity on an ultrasound that seems to be cardiac activity, is actually electric impulses, and not a true heartbeat. “When I use the stethoscope to listen to a patient’s heart, that sound that I hear is that typical bum-bum that you hear as the heartbeat is created by the opening and closing of the cardiac valves. And at six weeks of gestation, those valves don’t exist,” Verma said. “Flickering that we see on the ultrasound, that’s super early in the development of a pregnancy, is actually electric activity. And the sound that we hear at that point is actually manufactured by the ultrasound machine.”
This shows how unconstitutional and misleading this law really is. It is completely inaccurate and imprecise to restrict such things, especially since the pregnancy clock usually starts during somebody’s last menstrual cycle and most women don’t realize they are pregnant until after the fourth-sixth week leaving them very little to no time to prepare for pregnancy.
This law does permit abortions for health reasons, but the only execptions are only if the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life or if it leads to substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. But what about the other risks that can happen when a woman becomes pregnant?
At the bill signing, Abbot was asked about the outcomes of pregancy from rape or incest with this bill being in motion. His response was completely misleading and felt unhonest as he said that the state will “work tirelessly” to “eliminate all rapists.”
Not only is this act extremely restrictive and dangerous, but it also implies that a rape or incest victim is forced to carry their pregnancy to term. Giving such a broad statement promising to eliminate every single crime relating to sexual assualt or rape is impossible. It’s very deceiving considering he is the one promoting this bill, as Abbot’s actions say otherwise. Greg Abbot is a true misogynist that wants to take away reproductive rights for women and Texas as well as never being held accountable for his actions. According to the Progress Texas Article posted on November 5th, 2020, Not only is Abbot against abortion, but also believes women shouldn’t be as equally paid as men in the same jobs, refuses equality for LGBTQ+ Texans, and has displayed blatantly racist behavior towards others mutiple times.
With this law being in motion, there are still many people protesting and willing to fight against it. The White House expressed its opinion of the legislation on Tuesday, calling the new Texas law a “glaring violation of the landmark 1973 decision made in Roe”.
“The Texas law significantly impairs women’s access to critical reproductive health care, particularly affecting communities of color, individuals with low incomes, and those who live in rural or underserved communities,” the statement said. “The law also turns private citizens into bounty hunters who are empowered to bring lawsuits against anyone who they believe has helped another person get an abortion, including family members, faith leaders, those providing transportation, and health care providers.”
Because of the Heartbeat Act, so much commotion, worry, and anger has filled women and men not only in Texas, but across America as well. This law continuously keeps women in the dark, especially the ones that may not have enough money to support a child or the ones that do not have a safe enough environment to raise one. It’s unconstitutional and deprives females from their reproductive rights as well as setting the women’s rights movement back as a whole.
