By JIM MINNERY | ALASKA FAMILY COUNCIL
On February 23rd, Representative Sarah Vance of Homer shouted her support for preborn babies by introducing House Bill 357, the short title of which is the “Alaska Heartbeat Act.” This bill aims to save children from being aborted by emphasizing what should be, but is too often not recognized as, the inherently understood importance of a human heartbeat.
Cardiac cells within a preborn baby begin to collectively pulse at five weeks’ gestation, and a recognizable heartbeat is typically detected by week six. Vance’s bill would prohibit aborting a baby after a heartbeat is medically detected.
The bill will also require informed enhanced consent for pregnant women by mandating a sonogram before an elective abortion is performed, a practice that is current law in twelve other states. Half of those twelve states also require the medical provider to display and describe the sonogram to the pregnant woman.
It’s a bold step in Alaska, where abortions can be performed until the time of birth, and unmarried, unemancipated girls under 18 can get abortions without their parents’ approval, but Vance has some fellow legislators on her side.
Representatives Kevin McCabe, Frank Tomaszewski, Jubilee Underwood, Steve St. Clair, Garret Nelson, Elexie Moore, Bill Elam, and Jamie Allard, joined in to co-sponsor the bill.
According to Focus On The Family, which runs a program called Option Ultrasound to provide pregnant women a view of the human lives inside them, nearly 60 percent of women considering abortion choose life after receiving an ultrasound and compassionate and science-based counseling.
Ending the life of a preborn baby is a difficult decision. Despite movements such as “Shout My Abortion” where women actually celebrate aborting their own babies, the decision to abort is often an emotionally difficult one. The pro-life movement does not often understand that, taking the view that women just saunter over to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion without giving it a second thought.
Granted, a callousness towards preborn lives exists; otherwise, American women would not have aborted 62 million babies over the past half century. But there are women who go to abortion clinics with doubts and fears. If those women are given the opportunity to hear the heartbeats and see the limbs and movements of the children in their wombs, there is a good chance they will have a moment of conscience that tells them to choose life for their babies.
Alaska Family Council applauds Representative Vance and her co-sponsors for introducing HB357 and we encourage conscientious individuals and groups to support the Alaska Heartbeat Act.
CLICK HERE to send a thank you note to Representative Vance for standing for what is true, good and beautiful.
CLICK HERE to encourage House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, who has proclaimed to be pro life in the past, to use his influence to move HB357 forward.
