Rats and Cockroaches Have Heartbeats, Too; Doesn't Make Them Human

This is why repugs are determined to eliminate public education: so voters are too stupid to reject the rampant idiocy that passes for repug policy.

PZ Myers:

Texas legislators are doing it again, abusing the law to force-feed religious ideology on the public and specifically, to opress women. They’re pushing a ridiculous new law, following a lead set by North Dakota (seriously, if you’re looking for model legislation, don’t look to North Dakota).

On Thursday, three Texas Republicans filed a measure that would criminalize abortion services after a fetal heartbeat can be detected — which typically occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they’re pregnant.

I ask, what’s so special about a heart beat?

SNIP

They’re wonderful and beautiful, but no more so than any muscle, or any cell for that matter. A myocardial twitch is not the magic marker for ensoulment that you’re looking for, it’s simply a mechanical property of certain kinds of cells, a consequence of an entirely natural appearance of specific ion channels on the cell membrane and an orderly array of molecules in the cytoplasm. This is an arbitrary, emotional decision based entirely on folk wisdom that the heart is the center of life.

But you might just as well pick any arbitrary differentiation decision. Hey, stupid Texans, did you know that gastrulation is probably the most important embryonic decision in development? Maybe you should start testing for the expression of Brachyury in the embryo before allowing an abortion. That would let you set the cutoff point for an abortion at two weeks after fertilization! (I probably shouldn’t give them ideas, should I…)

But lets make no mistake and assume they’re looking for scientific, legitimate reasons to limit abortion. They really want to ban it altogether with no consideration for evidence or reality, for that matter, and in particular they don’t give a damn about the women they’re forcing their tribal wisdom upon.

So-called “heartbeat” bills are so radical that they divide the anti-choice community. In addition to criminalizing the vast majority of abortions, they also mandate invasive ultrasound procedures for women seeking abortions. In order to detect a fetal heartbeat so early in a pregnancy, doctors typically have to use a transvaginal probe.

That’s the bottom line: it’s Texas conservatives exercising their god-given right to decide what gets put into women’s vaginas

Juanita nails it, as usual:

Now you might ask yourself how can a doctor detect a fetal heartbeat at 6 weeks pregnant. You, of course, use a phallic shaped instrument called a transvaginal probe. Not you, actually, because you’re not that weird. But, somebody does and my theory is that Phil King wants it to be him. Look at that man, Sister. There’s something wrong with him.

So, if Phil King wants to be known henceforth as Probe King, I think he should be required to carry one of these suckers around at all times on the house floor with that grin on his face. He can use it as a pointer, a pretend weapon if gun play breaks out, or something to shove in his ear. I do not care, but he should have to remind every woman in Texas what he personally wants to do to us.

The consequences of this legislation are not, unfortunately, fucking funny.

PZ again:

Read this interview of Dr Jen Gunter by Maggie Koerth-Baker on the consequences of illegal abortions. The nightmare of blood and death for women is what religious conservatives want, apparently.