Planned Parenthood changes website to seemingly deny that unborn babies have a heartbeat at 6 weeks: 'It sounds like a heartbeat ..., but ...'



Planned Parenthood has recently altered the information it lists on its website regarding gestational development to obfuscate that unborn babies have a beating heart within six weeks of conception.

As LifeNews.com first noted back in late August, the website for Planned Parenthood used to state that "during week 5 - 6" of embryonic development, a "very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop." Internet archive site Way Back Machine indicates that such language could be seen on the website as recently as July 25.

However, since that time, Planned Parenthood has adjusted its language so as not to admit that an unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat at just five or six weeks. The website now reads that at that stage, a "part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity.

"It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound," the website continues, "but it's not a fully-formed heart — it's the earliest stage of the heart developing."

Many have speculated that Planned Parenthood "stealth-edited" its website so as to dodge or circumvent the fetal heartbeat laws that many states have adopted and begun to enforce, now that the Supreme Court of the United States sent the abortion issue back to the individual states.

Georgia is one such state. Georgia bans abortion after a heartbeat can be detected. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the heartbeat bill into law in 2019, and it went into effect shortly following the Dobbs ruling from SCOTUS.

Kemp is up for reelection this November. His opponent, Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, made waves on Tuesday when she called the fetal heartbeat detected by an ultrasound machine "manufactured."

"There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks," Abrams said during a speech at Morehouse College. "It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have a right to take control of a woman’s body."

She also called the reality of a fetal heartbeat "medically false" and "biologically a lie" and recently told the ladies of "The View" that she supports abortion "until the time of birth" in some circumstances.

However, many medical resources refute Abrams's assertions. The website for the Mayo Clinic says that "the heart and other organs also are starting to form and the heart begins to beat" at around four weeks gestation, and researchers at the University of Oxford claim that "the heart is the first organ to form during pregnancy."

Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and EMILY's List have all endorsed Stacey Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial race. It is unclear whether these organizations have made donations to her campaign as well.

Stacey Abrams claims fetal heartbeats are 'medically false' and 'biologically a lie' at student forum in Atlanta



Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams advanced a false and unscientific claim about fetal heartbeats at a student forum in Atlanta on Tuesday.

“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks,” she asserted at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, addressing an audience hosted by Morehouse College and Spelman College Democrats.

"It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have a right to take control of a woman’s body," she claimed, calling fetal heartbeats "medically false" and "biologically a lie."

\u201cGeorgia Democrat Stacey Abrams: "There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman's body."\n\nREMINDER: Abrams supports NO LIMITS on abortion.\u201d
— RNC Research (@RNC Research) 1663805958

Abrams, who is not a doctor, made those extraordinary claims in response to a question about how she would protect abortion rights if elected governor. She said that Georgia's six-week abortion ban, which restrictions abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, must be repealed.

"We ought to get rid of the bill. The bill is asinine, it is biologically inappropriate. It is morally wrong, and it should be confined to the dustbin of history," Abrams said.

But her claims are not medically accurate. The human heart is one of the first organs to form in a developing embryo. "The initiation of the first heart beat via the primitive heart tube begins at gestational day 22, followed by active fetal blood circulation by the end of week 4," according to a review of cardiac development published by Karger, a fetal medicine journal.

While it is true that an embryo does not have a fully formed heart at day 22, by the sixth week of gestation in pregnancy an unborn baby's primitive heartbeat can be detected by an ultrasound. Doctors refer to this as a "manufactured" sound because it is an electrical pulse picked up and translated into sound by the ultrasound machine. But that does not mean the heartbeat is not present and is fabricated by doctors, as Abrams falsely claimed.

The once-failed gubernatorial candidate has staked a radically pro-abortion position in her revenge campaign against Gov. Brian Kemp (R). She has said she supports abortion even "until the time of birth" in some circumstances, calling it a "medical decision, not a political decision."

At Tuesday's student forum, Abrams said abortion rights supporters need to be louder.

"We have to stop whispering about abortion rights in the shadows and talk about it openly," Abrams said. "It is about how we move our bodies. It is about how we live our lives. This is not a cultural issue. This is a medical issue, it is an economic issue, it is a moral issue, and it is our decision."

She added, "If they can take our vote, our right to control our bodies, they can take our right to decide who to love, they can take all of our civil liberties from us. And every time they chip away at a civil liberty, if you think you're safe, just wait, they're coming for you next."

Watch:

Liberal Republicans in South Carolina state Senate kill abortion ban



A little more than a week after the South Carolina state House passed a near-total abortion ban, the bill was killed Thursday during a special session of the state Senate, where it was opposed by moderate Republicans and Democrats.

Five GOP senators refused to support the legislation, which would have banned most abortions from the moment of conception, with exceptions for medical emergencies threatening the life of the mother. Those opposed included the three Republican women in the state Senate, Sens. Penry Gustafson, Sandy Senn, and Katrina Shealy, as well as state Sen. Tom Davis, who was chief of staff to former Gov. Mark Sanford (R) before he was elected to the Senate in 2009, and state Sen. Greg Hembree.

During debate, Shealy chastised her male colleagues and said they should ask the women in their lives before trying to pass an abortion ban without rape or incest exceptions, the Associated Press reported.

“You want to believe that God is wanting you to push a bill through with no exceptions that kill mothers and ruins the lives of children — lets mothers bring home babies to bury them — then I think you’re miscommunicating with God. Or maybe you aren’t communicating with Him at all,” Shealy said before senators amended the bill to permit abortions if a baby cannot survive outside the womb.

But Davis, the father of three daughters, said he would filibuster any attempt to pass abortion restrictions beyond the state's current six-week ban.

“The moment we become pregnant we lost all control over what goes on with our bodies,” Davis said, reportedly recounting what his daughters told him. “I’m here to tell you I’m not going to let it happen."

After the filibuster threat, Republican Majority Leader Sen. Shane Massey acknowledged the abortion ban could not pass.

"This is not where I wanted to be. I was hoping we'd be more aggressive, but it's clear to me the votes are not there in the Senate for an abortion ban before six weeks," Massey said, according to the Post and Courier. "We don't have the votes."

Instead, the Senate passed a measure strengthening South Carolina's fetal heartbeat law, which went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The law bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected by ultrasound, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. However, that law was temporarily blocked by the state supreme court after Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued, arguing it violates privacy protections in the state constitution.

Lawmakers voted 27-16 in favor of a bill that amends language in the fetal heartbeat law that the state supreme court flagged in its ruling to issue a temporary injunction blocking the law last month. The Senate-passed bill also reduces the length of time a victim of rape or incest has to seek an abortion from 20 weeks to 13 weeks.

Current state law requires that allegations of rape and incest be reported to local law enforcement within 24 hours of a victim obtaining an abortion. The Senate proposed a new requirement that a DNA sample of the aborted child be taken by a physician and sent to law enforcement to be preserved as evidence within 90 days of the abortion, WRDW-TV reports.

Additionally, the Senate bill increases the number of doctors required to sign off on an abortion in cases of fetal abnormalities from one to two. The doctors must confirm that the baby could not survive outside the womb.

The amendments to the fetal heartbeat law will now head to the state House, where representatives will either concur with the Senate's changes or attempt to pass another version of the near-total abortion ban the Senate has already rejected. The latter action would likely result in no bill passing at all.

Gov. Henry McMaster (R) said in a statement he will sign whichever legislation lawmakers agree to.

"The Senate’s bill — just like the House bill — strikes an appropriate balance," McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes told the Post and Courier. "It is the governor’s hope that the House and Senate will soon come to an agreement and send a bill to his desk for signature."

In the meantime, the state's 20-week ban on abortion remains in effect.

South Carolina state House passes abortion ban with rape, incest exceptions



The South Carolina state House on Tuesday passed a bill banning nearly all abortions after Republicans added exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

Pro-life lawmakers fought for a version of the bill that banned abortion except when the mother's life is endangered, but 19 moderate Republicans joined with Democrats to prevent that bill from passing. After hours of negotiations, a compromise was reached within the Republican majority to pass a bill that allows a victim impregnated by a rapist to seek an abortion within 12 weeks of the crime.

State House Majority Leader David Hiott (R) told the Post and Courier there was no specific reason for the three-month window, that it was just the only time frame the conference could agree to.

"We knew we were all over the place," Hiott said. "It's an emotional, personal issue."

In the end, a bill with rape, incest, and medical emergency exemptions passed 67-38 and will now head to the state Senate. It's possible the bill could be amended further before the Republican-controlled legislature sends it to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster's desk.

As currently written, the bill requires abortionists to tell their pregnant patients that they will report the rape to authorities. They must give county sheriff's deputies the woman's name and contact information within 24 hours of the abortion procedure. Abortions performed to save the mother's life in case of medical emergencies are also permitted.

Although pro-life lawmakers had said they would not support a bill that had exceptions for rape and incest, ultimately they voted for the bill that passed.

“But here’s the thing — at the end of the day we passed a good pro-life bill in South Carolina,” state Rep. John McCravy (R) said, according to the Associated Press.

Democrats slammed Republicans after the bill passed, decrying anti-abortion measures as an attack on women's rights.

"Tonight, Governor Henry McMaster and his extremist allies in the legislature passed a dangerous and unpopular abortion ban that rips away women's most fundamental rights and freedoms. Under this bill, the government calls the shots for women," said former U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.), who is running for governor.

"South Carolina women deserve full rights - not partial rights dictated by men in the legislature. I will do everything in my power to stop this bill from becoming law and I pledge to veto any bill that restricts a woman's right to make her own decisions," he tweeted.

\u201cSouth Carolina women deserve full rights - not partial rights dictated by men in the legislature. I will do everything in my power to stop this bill from becoming law and I pledge to veto any bill that restricts a woman's right to make her\u00a0own decisions. 2/2\u201d
— Joe Cunningham (@Joe Cunningham) 1661901607

South Carolina Citizens for Life, the state's National Right to Life Committee affiliate, praised Republican lawmakers for advancing protections for unborn children, including those conceived by crimes.

"I am very encouraged about the bold action that was taken. This was a historic moment for South Carolina," said SCCL president Lisa Van Riper.

While some pro-life activists may be dismayed that rape and incest exemptions were added to the bill, Van Riper emphasized that this is the first legislation that sets a limit on when a rape victim may obtain an abortion and the first to establish reporting requirements for abortions in rape and incest cases.

"We have to have the perspective of how far we have come in South Carolina since 1973," she told TheBlaze in an interview. "From nothing, basically nothing, like a tsunami hit your beach and knocked everything over, we have come to a point with a bill that preserves both the life of the mother and the unborn child except in the rarest of circumstances."

South Carolina has a fetal heartbeat law that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and banned abortions after six-weeks. But that law was temporarily blocked by the state supreme court after Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued, arguing it violates privacy protections in the state constitution.

The state's 20-week abortion ban, which became law in 2016, in remains in effect while the legal challenge to the fetal heartbeat law is unresolved.

The South Carolina state Senate will reconvene on Sept. 6 to take up the new bill.

VanRiper said she has "confidence" that Senate Republicans will "deliver and respond to this historic moment from the House and do the right thing."

Federal injunction blocking South Carolina's fetal heartbeat law is permanently lifted, attorney general says



A federal injunction blocking South Carolina's fetal heartbeat law was permanently lifted Thursday, the state attorney general's office said.

"This is a victory for life," Attorney General Alan Wilson declared after the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated its previous decision blocking the Fetal Heartbeat Act.

The court said it reconsidered the injunction after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case that determined there is no constitutional right to an abortion and upheld Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban.

"... in light of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ... the court vacates its previous opinion in this case, vacates the district court’s preliminary injunction, and remands the case to the district court," the court said.

Wilson's office described what this means in "layman's terms": "When the Fetal Heartbeat Act was signed into law in 2021, the Court blocked it with an injunction because it went against Roe v. Wade. When Roe was overturned, a federal district court stayed that injunction, or removed the 'block,' which meant the law went into effect. But a 'stay' is temporary. Today, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that injunction permanently. So first the law was blocked, then it was temporarily unblocked, and now it’s permanently unblocked."

South Carolina's law restricts abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which occurs around six weeks of pregnancy.

Though the federal case has been sent back to district court, where it is likely to prevail because of the Supreme Court's ruling, a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, Greenville Women's Clinic, and two doctors against the law will proceed in state court.

The abortion clinics claim that the heartbeat law violates South Carolinians' right to privacy and equal protection under the state constitution. They filed a lawsuit on July 13 seeking to block the six-week ban from taking effect.

“With today’s state court challenge, we are once again seeking to block this harmful law that cruelly denies South Carolinians the power to make their own personal medical decisions," said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic after the lawsuit was filed.

"This fight is not new to us, and we know what’s at stake: Without court intervention, South Carolinians will continue to suffer in a state with dangerously high rates of maternal mortality and infant mortality, particularly among Black women and babies. We urgently need this court to reject Senate Bill 1 for what it is: a direct assault on our health care, our lives, and fundamental human rights,” she added.

Wilson's office responded to the lawsuit in a 27-page filing arguing the heartbeat law does not violate the state constitution, WLTX-TV reported.

Specifically, the attorney general says Section 10 of the South Carolina Constitution, which was adopted in 1971, was written to protect citizens from improper surveillance of electronic devices and computer data banks, the outlet reported.

"The committee simply did not intend or understand the provision to extend any further," Wilson says. "It certainly did not intend to confer a state constitutional right to abortion."

The case will be heard in Richland County court on Tuesday.

Unhinged Joy Reid says GOP voters are 'pro-rape' and 'pro child marriage' in bonkers Twitter tirade



MSNBC host Joy Reid, in an unhinged rant on social media, asserted without evidence that the long-term goal of Republican voters is to impose "unbreakable rule by far right Christian ideologues" on the country.

In a string of flaming hot takes fired off Tuesday, Reid claimed that Republicans are appealing to pro-rape and pro-child marriage voters to win elections.

"The greatest, and sickest irony of the @GOP's new political strategy is that they are appealing to the most prurient fears of white Christian parents, while passing bills and maintaining alliances that normalize child brides and rape as a legitimate means of procreation," Reid began.

The greatest, and sickest irony of the @GOP's new political strategy is that they are appealing to the most prurient fears of white Christian parents, while passing bills and maintaining alliances that normalize child brides and rape as a legitimate means of procreation.
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37 (@Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37) 1649204626

"If Democrats were anything like Republicans, they'd long ago have begun calling them the pro-rape, pro child marriage party," she continued, accusing Repubicans of "forcing women to be child-birthing slaves of the state" and "banning the teaching of what slavery is to keep the chattel docile."

The MSNBC host did not provide evidence that Republicans have passed bills that "normalize child brides" or make rape "a legitimate means of procreation." These claims are false.

In the past she's attacked abortion restrictions supported by Republicans, such as the Texas fetal heartbeat law that bans abortions after six weeks, as some kind of "American Taliban" and made comparisons between GOP laws and the dystopian Hulu series "The Handmaid's Tale." She has also claimed that Republican states attempting to ban critical race theory are teaching students "Confederate race theory" instead, as Fox News has reported.

It is unclear what prompted her latest rant, although she referred to an MSNBC segment with host Chris Hayes that discussed GOP attacks on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's record in child pornography cases. Republicans have accused Jackson of being soft on crime and child predators in particular, and Hayes tied their line of attack to Q-Anon conspiracy theories, accusing Republicans of hypocrisy because in his view they have not adequately condemned child predators in their own party, such as disgraced former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former Rep. Mark Foley, and former Senate candidate Roy Moore.

Reid insisted she was not "exaggerating" by citing two 2017 articles from the Federalist encouraging Alabama voters to support Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct. During the 2017 special election for Senate in Alabama, a woman came forward with allegations that Moore had pursued a sexual encounter with her four decades earlier, when she was just 14 and he was 32. Moore has denied the allegations.

And here's another, in which the @FDRLST gives away the game: all that matters is the SCOTUS. Because it is through the Supreme Court, that the white Christian right hopes to impose its Taliban code and procreation-centered ideology on us all. #underhiseyehttps://thefederalist.com/2017/11/28/justified-vote-morally-questionable-politician/\u00a0\u2026
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37 (@Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37) 1649206894

The first article she referred to is an op-ed by a philosophy professor at Ouachita Baptist University that downplayed the age difference between Moore and his accuser at the time of the alleged encounter as "not an uncommon occurrence during this time" and "not without some merit if one wants to raise a large family." The second is an op-ed by D.C. McAllister, who argued more broadly that a political candidate's character should not be the only concern for voters.

Armed with the opinions of two people from a single publication with numerous writers and diverse guest columnists, Reid denounced all conservative ideology as "Putinite fascism mixed with Talibanism."

"And it's what they hope to impose on us: unbreakable rule by far right Christian ideologues, coal & oil polluters, heeled corporations & the super rich. With all rights hoarded by white Christian men & everyone else under firm control," Reid tweeted.

Fascist America is not gonna be a great place to live, folks, at least not for women and people of color. It can still be prevented, but y'all have got to wake up. And yeah, Democrats are largely uninspiring and terrible fighters. But they're all that stands between us and them.
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37 (@Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37) 1649206896

"Fascist America is not gonna be a great place to live, folks, at least not for women and people of color. It can still be prevented, but y'all have got to wake up. And yeah, Democrats are largely uninspiring and terrible fighters. But they're all that stands between us and them," she concluded.