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UPDATE — Idaho’s governor has signed into law a six-week heartbeat bill modeled after Texas’ landmark law, which the Supreme Court allowed to go into effect last September. Idaho’s new law bans abortions after six weeks, or when a heartbeat has been detected, and allows the father and other family members of the unborn child to civilly sue an abortionist who breaks the law.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, the Democrat-dominated legislature passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which codifies the right to an abortion at any point during pregnancy into law and states plainly that fetuses have no legal rights. It passed on a straight party line vote in both houses of the General Assembly, with not a single Republican supporting it. Democrat Gov. Jared Polis has said he will sign it.
Published March 15, 2022 — Yesterday, the Colorado House of Representatives and the Idaho legislature passed new abortion bills, with Idaho’s affirming the sanctity of life in the womb and the rights of pre-born children while Colorado’s declared that that they have no rights at all.
As states prepare for a possible overturning of Roe v. Wade when the Supreme Court takes up the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, legislatures are responding in very different ways. No example illustrates this better than legislative action that took place on March 14 in two different states.
The state of Idaho passed a bill similar to the Texas “heartbeat” law, which relies on the civil action of private citizens for enforcement. Idaho’s bill, which has been passed by both legislative bodies and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little, R, prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The only exceptions are for rape and incest, but a police report must be filed before such an abortion can be performed.
The bill allows the mother, her family, or the father of the unborn child to sue any person who performs a post-heartbeat abortion, with a minimum penalty of $20,000.
It also contains a clause in which, if heartbeat laws are upheld in court, an abortion performed after a heartbeat is detected would be a criminal offense and result in a two- to five-year prison sentence.
The legislation affirms the personhood and the rights of a preborn child. It says, “The life of each human being begins at fertilization, and preborn children have interests in life, health, and well-being that should be protected.” The legislation also asserts, “The presence of a human heartbeat is a more reliable indicator of life than the medically uncertain concept of ‘viability’ and whether that preborn child is ‘potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb.’”
It adds that a fetal heartbeat “signals rhythmically and without pause the presence of a precious and unique life, one that is independent and distinct from the mother’s and one that is also worthy of our utmost protection.”
Standing in stark contrast to the Idaho bill is the Colorado legislation.
The bill, which recently passed in Colorado’s House of Representatives after days of debate, grants the right to an abortion at any point in pregnancy and at any age. The bill only received votes from Democrats and is expected to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate and be signed by Democrat Gov. Jared Polis.
Rep. Meg Froelich, D, a sponsor of the bill, said on the House floor, “Over and over again, we heard how important it is, how important it was and how important it shall be that these decisions be made by the pregnant person and their medical provider. Trust Coloradans. Trust women. Preserve our privacy, preserve our choices.”
The bill affirms that “every pregnant individual” has “a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion.” It also denies that children in the womb have any rights. “A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of the state.”
Republicans decried the bill, claiming that everyone “deserves a birthday.” Rep. Terri Carver said, “This is barbaric.”
However, Democrat Rep. Shannon Bird argued, “Every child deserves more than just a birthday,” claiming that children also deserve to be born into families and societies that are prepared to support them.
America may be one nation but there are two countries within it. One celebrates life, the other convenience. For those who say they “believe in science” and “see” women, it is interesting that the left can’t bring itself to actually say the word “women” when talking about pregnancy, preferring to say that a “pregnant person,” which can only be a woman, should have total bodily autonomy, unless she wants to decline a vaccine.
Since a heartbeat indicates life, it seems the left is either unfamiliar with medical science or is willfully defending murder. The idea that it is somehow giving a child what it deserves by murdering it as opposed to letting it be born into a family that wasn’t planning for it shows a lack of understanding of the value of life. No one thinks that a baby in the womb on the day it is to be born isn’t a baby, but Colorado wants to make it an unassailable right to kill that baby.
The right to an abortion isn’t real. There was no vote, no constitutional amendment, and more importantly no God-given right to murder your child because you don’t want them or think you can’t afford them. It was invented by activists on the Supreme Court and it is high past time that was rectified.
Let the two distinct countries decide for themselves. Abortion bans and restrictions in half of the states will save lives. And meanwhile, we must continue to pray that one day the blue country within America will wake up to the reality of what they are doing to the most innocent and vulnerable of all of God’s children and that they will then repent and put in place their own bans.
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