Why does the Texas Bill call it Cardiac Activity and not a heartbeat?
Feelwings, of course
"Proponents of Texas’ new near-total ban on abortions call it the “heartbeat bill.”
The name references the point in time at around six weeks’ gestation when the embryo’s cardiac activity can first be detected by an ultrasound — which under the new law triggers a block on an abortion. But medical and reproductive health experts say the reference to a heartbeat at that stage of a pregnancy is medically inaccurate as an embryo does not have a developed heart at six weeks’ gestation.
Still, the moniker has helped rally supporters around the law in Texas and nationwide where other states are considering similar legislation."
Medical and reproductive health experts say the reference to a heartbeat is medically inaccurate as an embryo does not have a developed heart at six weeks’ gestation.
www.texastribune.org
Dr. Nisha Verma, a physician who provides abortion services and a fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the activity measured on an ultrasound in early gestation is electrical impulses, not a true heartbeat.
“When I use the stethoscope to listen to a patient’s heart, that sound that I hear is that typical bum-bum-bum-bum that you hear as the heartbeat is created by the opening and closing of the cardiac valves. And at six weeks of gestation, those valves don’t exist,” Verma said.