For the Sake of Science

Anti-abortion advocates have caused the “heartbeat” bill in Ohio to be put on hold:

Fear of expensive legal battles over the law may have prompted a wave of amendments by Senate backers to the bill. But the wording of the bill has split anti-abortion backers.

“Supporters of the bill delivered more than 20 amendments on Wednesday, asking us to make changes after months of deliberation in both the House and Senate,” Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus, a Republican, said in a statement.

“These eleventh hour revisions only serve to create more uncertainty about a very contentious issue. We’ve now heard hours of testimony that indicate a sharp disagreement within the pro-life community over the direction of this bill, and I believe our members need additional time to weigh the arguments. Therefore, I have asked the committee chairman to suspend hearings on the bill,” Niehaus said.

Basically, they’re afraid the Supreme Court will rule against them. It’s funny because the whole strategy of the anti-abortionists for the past 10-15 years has been to push the boundary of Roe v Wade, even flagrantly ignoring it, in order to force a SC showdown.

At any rate, I’m glad to see this has been set aside from now. The entire premise was just silly. A heartbeat does not somehow convey special importance onto a fetus. In fact, it is a whole confluence of factors which contribute to what we define as being important in humans. It cannot possibly be clear when it is that enough of those factors have come together in order for us to draw a line; the best we can do is seek a reasonable point during pregnancy (a point which we laden with necessary exceptions). I think Roe v Wade actually found that point.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social | Tagged: Abortion, Heartbeat bill, Ohio |