ACOG continues to put pro-abortion agenda over science in heartbeat declaration

The Iowa Supreme Court agreed last year to hear Governor Kim Reynolds’ appeal of a temporary block of the state’s new heartbeat law, and the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) filed of the brief claim that any kind of law referring to fetal heartbeats is not based on medical science. The group says fetal heart rate determinations are “arbitrary.”

Naa shortACOG describes itself as “the nation’s leading group of physicians providing evidence-based obstetric and gynecologic care,” and states that “[a]Abortion is an important part of comprehensive health care and is safe.” ACOG has tried to outright deny that fetal heartbeats exist:

The Legislature defined “fetal heartbeat” to include the embryonic cardiac activity that occurs as a result of the electrical flickering of an early part of the embryonic tissue that will eventually develop into the fetal heart, usually seen at about six weeks. pregnancy However, as a matter of medical science, the development of the fetal heart is extremely complex and continues throughout pregnancy.

During the development of the heart isin fact, extremely complicated and doing, in fact, continues throughout the pregnancy, which does not invalidate the fact that the detection of “embryonic cardiac activity” is one of the earliest confirmations that there is a new human organism developing in the womb. Telling the public that they’ve never actually witnessed or seen someone with a heartbeat on the screen during a pregnancy ultrasound is, to put it bluntly, gaslighting.

They further concluded that lawmakers made an “arbitrary determination” based on medical science that “does not reflect how cardiac activity is viewed in the actual practice of medicine.”

ACOG has previously tried to say that there is no heartbeat in the first trimester, saying in an abortion guide that “[u]Until the heart chambers are formed and can be identified by ultrasound (approximately 17-20 weeks of gestation), it is not accurate to define the development of the heart of the embryo or fetus as a heartbeat.”

This is a rather strange claim to make from a medical organization, considering that fetal heartbeats are known to exist… including in medical literature recently published in 2019:

The human heart is one of the first organs to form and function during embryogenesis. At the end of gestational week 3, passive oxygen diffusion becomes insufficient to support the metabolism of the developing embryo, and thus the fetal heart becomes essential for the distribution of oxygen and nutrients. The initiation of the first heartbeat through the primitive heart tube begins on the 22nd day of pregnancy, followed by active fetal blood circulation by the end of the 4th week.

Also the National Library of Medicine state that, at six weeks, the “heart continues to grow and now beats in a regular rhythm. This can be seen through vaginal ultrasound.”

A video from Endowment for Human Development also shows that the heart is beating — not in meaningless “cardiac activity,” but in actual pumping of blood throughout the tiny body of the pre-born child.

Dr. Donna Harrison of American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists previously mentioned:

The narrative that embryos do not have heartbeats at six weeks gestation is a glaring example of misinformation that can be corrected by studying basic embryology. In fact, at six weeks gestation, the embryonic heart rhythmically contracts to pump blood through its arteries, which flow to the placenta to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. To call it anything other than a beating heart is dishonest, and only serves to discredit people before birth.

ACOG is clearly following Planned Parenthood’s lead; the abortion corporation previously acknowledged the reality of fetal heartbeats, before scrubbing their website of that reality.

ACOG has clearly decided that a pro-abortion agenda is more important to them than the actual truth… while positioning themselves as an honest medical authority.