ABRAMS’ FETAL HEARTBEAT COMMENTS DRAW IRE

Recent comments made by Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams regarding fetal heartbeats were a hot topic among GOP lawmakers on Thursday during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing examining abortion restrictions across the country.

 

Abrams has faced heavy criticism from the right following a comment she made last week during a panel discussion in Atlanta.

  • “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks,” Abrams said. “It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have a right to take control of a woman’s body away from her.”
  • “Within the first four weeks of pregnancy, the baby develops a heartbeat, despite, by the way, claims of my home state’s gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, this is not merely a manufactured sound,” said Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.).

Abrams’s comments reflect the position of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which says on its website: “It is clinically inaccurate to use the word ‘heartbeat’ to describe the sound that can be heard on ultrasound in very early pregnancy.”