With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing a heartbeat bill into law Thursday, the debate over whether such bills are based on hard science, or are instead an emotional flash point, has reemerged.
The Associated Press reported in 2021 that for the progenitors of setting an abortion limit at six weeks, “hearts were easy to market.” NBC News quoted medical professionals the following year saying that the ultrasound at six weeks detects electrical impulses, or “cardiac activity,” not the visceral image we have of a live, beating heart. NPR took the same tack in 2022, quoting pro-choice experts arguing that both terms in the phrase “fetal heartbeat” are misleading. The experts claimed the fetus is in fact an embryo, and that the heartbeat is not yet a heartbeat in a structure not yet a heart.
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