{"id":302521,"date":"2023-12-26T11:43:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T17:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=302521"},"modified":"2023-12-26T09:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T15:39:49","slug":"pro-abortion-groups-quietly-change-cardiac-definitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-abortion-groups-quietly-change-cardiac-definitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-abortion groups quietly change definitions and timeline for ‘fetal cardiac development’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) quietly updated its “Guide to Language and Abortion” to once again redefine when a preborn child’s heartbeat begins.<\/p>\n

Last year, the heavily pro-abortion organization claimed detection of “fetal cardiac development” (as ACOG puts it) occurred from “17 to 20 weeks” but the group’s updated document now defines this as “a gradual process that continues through a pregnancy.”<\/p>\n

ACOG failed to publicly announce the changes, despite the definition being cited by news media (NBCNews<\/a>, PBS<\/a>, Reuters<\/a>, DesMoines Register<\/a>, The Oklahoman<\/a> and others) as well as various court cases.<\/p>\n

\"ACOG

ACOG fetal heartbeat info in Language Guide to Abortion changed 2022-23<\/p><\/div>\n

Christopher Mills at National Review Online caught ACOG’s language guide update after reviewing a Planned Parenthood court document<\/a> challenging South Carolina’s Fetal Heartbeat Act<\/a> (S.B. 474). The law\u00a0defined fetal heartbeat as “cardiac activity” which “begins at a biologically identifiable moment in time, normally when the fetal heart is formed in the gestational sac.”<\/p>\n

Mills pointed out<\/a> how “Planned Parenthood has relied on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), whose ‘Guide to Language and Abortion’ and many amicus<\/i> briefs said that ‘a fetal heartbeat exists only after the chambers of the heart have developed and can be detected via ultrasound, which typically occurs around 17 to 20 weeks\u2019 gestation.'”<\/p>\n

“Thus, said ACOG, ‘there is no recognizable \u2018heartbeat\u2019 from a clinical perspective,’ and ‘[w]hat pregnant [women] may hear is the ultrasound machine translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity.’ ACOG said this to courts over<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over<\/a>,” Mills wrote.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood Distances Itself from ACOG’s Fetal Heartbeat Definition<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to footnotes cited (page 5) in the Planned Parenthood heartbeat lawsuit<\/a>, the abortion corporation is distancing itself from ACOG’s outdated definition. The footnote read in part:<\/p>\n

Physicians and scientists may use different verbiage in talking about cardiac development. For example, some may use the term ‘heartbeat’ to refer to early embryonic electrical activity. However, the medical consensus is that the four main components of a heart (four chambers, walls, valves, and conduction system) form after approximately nine weeks LMP<\/strong>… <\/em><\/p>\n

Petitioners use the term ‘after approximately nine weeks LMP’ as a conservative estimate of when the heart has formed, acknowledging that heart development can continue to ten weeks LMP, consistent with the State\u2019s materials.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a stunning change<\/em> from once supporting ACOG’s stance of a 17-20 week heartbeat to stating that 9-10 weeks is when there is cardiac activity of a four-chambered heart (though it should be noted that the heart is pumping blood through the embryo’s body weeks<\/em> before it has four chambers<\/a>).<\/p>\n