Idaho Introduces Controversial ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban

Idaho has introduced a controversial ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion ban. 

Governor Brad Little has signed the new bill into law which bans a pregnancy termination after six weeks. However, this legislation doesn’t include medical emergencies and pregnancies that are a result of sexual assault.

The Republican confirmed the news in a statement, saying he was ‘proud’ that he could help ‘protect the lives of the preborns’. 

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This legislation will require that abortion providers check for fetal heartbeat and if one is detected, the termination is forbidden. 

Idaho state Rep. Steven Harris, who promoted the law, told CNN in an interview that regardless of whether or not someone knows they’re pregnant, it ‘shouldn’t change the results’. 

“Is there supposed to be a time frame that says, ‘Within some window I can abort the baby?’ ” he said. “It doesn’t quite make sense from a pro-life point of view.”

But the bill has been slammed by abortion-rights movements. 

Planned Parenthood has accused Little of appealing to his ‘radical followers’. 

The group stated: “Let’s be clear: Abortion is still completely legal in Idaho, even after six weeks. This legislation changes nothing.

“What it really does is simply set Idaho up for a lawsuit if a similar ban in another federal court upholds their unconstitutional legislation – and there is nothing that indicates that would ever happen. But even if it does, we will launch a lawsuit immediately to stop it.”

The ban comes after Texas Republicans introduced a bill that means parents of trans kids could be classed as ‘child abusers’.

The state’s potential law will mean that a person will be considered guilty of child abuse if they are ‘consenting to or assisting in the administering or supplying of, a puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child’.

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