Nebraska lawmakers introduce heartbeat bill

Nebraska Senator Joni Albrecht introduced the Nebraska Heartbeat Act to lawmakers on Wednesday. The bill would protect preborn children from abortion after a heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks gestation.

According to the Nebraska Examiner, the bill would not criminalize abortionists or mothers who violate the law, but it does propose that abortionists in violation of the law should lose their medical licenses.

Albrecht had previously introduced legislation that would protect nearly all preborn children from abortion, but that bill failed to pass in April 2022. Albrecht noted that while she would have preferred a law that protects all children, the political climate is such that she feels there is a greater chance of a heartbeat bill passing the legislature.

“I know that in Nebraska, after bringing the trigger bill that we did, I knew that I had to be open-minded to some movement,” she said. “I’m listening to Nebraskans.”

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Recent polling conducted by Nebraska Right to Life and the Nebraska Family Alliance and the Nebraska Catholic Conference did indicate a majority support for protecting preborn children from abortion after a heartbeat is detected.

“I really think (abortion-rights advocates) want women to be able to do what they’ve been able to do the last 50 years,” Albrecht said. “We have to stand up and support and protect that unborn child.”

Dr. Katrina Furth, Ph.D., a developmental biologist at Charlotte Lozier Institute, was present at the introductory press conference to discuss the preborn child’s heartbeat and to counter pro-abortion misinformation that claims prenatal heartbeats are a manufactured sound.

“Unlike politics, science is based on observable facts. The science of embryology confirms that the heart is the first functioning organ in a developing human being, with the first heartbeat at just six weeks of pregnancy. To be blunt, it’s a requirement of human prenatal development because a baby’s growth is dependent on the steady flow of oxygen and nutrients through the bloodstream,” she explained. “To deny that a baby at six weeks has a heartbeat is to deny both science and common sense. At six weeks, the baby has a developing human organ which beats rhythmically 110 times per minute pumping nutrient-rich blood throughout the body. Most people in Nebraska call that a heart.”

Indeed, science — based on observable facts — shows that life begins even earlier than the first detectable heartbeat, at fertilization. And at that moment, a new member of the human species — a new distinct human organism — has come into being, one that is unlike any other human being that has ever existed. Denying any member of the human species equal protection under the law is discriminatory and is based on arbitrary (not innate) factors determined by the desires of those in power. Voter opinions, polls, and politics cannot change the fact that every member of the human species has an unalienable right to life from the moment he or she comes into existence.

Nebraska’s recently-elected governor, Jim Pillen, has said that he would support any legislation that protects preborn children from abortion and has indicated his support of the bill.