Passed by the House last year but buried by the Senate, the “heartbeat bill” was reintroduced yesterday by Republican state Reps. Lynn Wachtmann of Napoleon and Christina Hagan of Alliance.
“It’s a new General Assembly, and we’re ready to start the fire again,” Hagan said at a Statehouse news conference featuring Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and 17 of their 19 children. The family appears on the TLC cable program 19 Kids and Counting.
The bill would outlaw abortion once a heartbeat in a fetus is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Many legal scholars have said the law would violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade that abortions are permitted until the fetus is viable outside the womb, generally around 24 weeks into the pregnancy.
