Planned Parenthood changes website after Stacey Abrams's heartbeat comments
By Jack Birle, Breaking News Reporter
September 23, 2022 08:13 AM
Planned Parenthood has quietly changed its website to match comments Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams made Thursday about fetal heartbeats.
Abrams said Thursday that "there is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks," adding, "It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman's body."
Planned Parenthood changed its website without any acknowledgment of modifications to say that under the five- to six-week mark of pregnancy, "a part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity. It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound, but it's not a fully-formed heart — it's the earliest stage of the heart developing." The same webpage previously said that "a very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop," per an archive of the page from July.
The National Library of Medicine, under the National Institutes of Health, says that at week five of pregnancy, "your baby's brain, spinal cord, and heart begin to develop," and at weeks six to seven, the "baby's heart continues to grow and now beats at a regular rhythm."
Abrams made the remark on fetal heartbeats while discussing Georgia's "heartbeat law," which bans most abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which occurs around six weeks.
Abrams is attempting to unseat Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a rematch of the 2018 gubernatorial race. Real Clear Politics has rated the race as "leans Republican."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/planned-parenthood-changes-website-abrams-heartbeat-comments