Does the Heartbeat Bill go far enough in protecting babies? One activist disagrees (VIDEO)

March 31, 2019

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COLUMBUS — After easily passing the Senate , the Heartbeat Bill (SB 23) is now being discussed in the Ohio House. The bill is designed to prohibit abortions after a heartbeat has been detected in an unborn baby; as early as six weeks. But one local activist from Morrow County who testified before House Committee last week believes irreconcilable loopholes exist in the legislation.

Sarah Cleveland is a fifteen-year registered ultrasound tech who specializes in OBGYN work. Cleveland is involved with anti-abortion activism, is a foster parent, and also a home schooling parent of five. She believes the Heartbeat Bill should be changed to ban all abortions, not to regulate them.

Cleveland asks “How can the Heartbeat Bill (SB 23) claim that 90-95 % of all babies will be saved when one of the bill’s sponsors, Ohio Right to Life, correctly admits that the bill has a big open window up to twelve weeks (first trimester)?”

In her testimony on SB 23, she pointed out “In lines 439 thru 442, it states that any examination of the womb during pregnancy shall be done externally and not internally or thru a trans vaginal ultrasound. At six weeks, babies on the average are only 2-3 millimeters in size, therefore, the heartbeat likely will not be detected since only external scanning (tran abdominal ultrasounds) are required by the bill.”

With 89% of the abortions occurring in the first trimester according to the Gutmacher Institute, this presents a problem.

Even if a heartbeat can be detected, Cleveland asserts, it does not mean that the heartbeat will be documented.

“As someone who has operated an ultrasound machine for many years, the machine only takes pictures where I tell it to. It is 100 % operator dependent. I can choose not to see a heartbeat even if there is one. The machine can be easily manipulated. That is the problem of keeping abortion legally protected, it is trusting murderers to tell the truth.”

“As someone who has operated an ultrasound machine for many years, the machine only takes pictures where I tell it to. It is 100 % operator dependent. I can choose not to see a heartbeat even if there is one. The machine can be easily manipulated. That is the problem of keeping abortion legally protected, it is trusting murderers to tell the truth.”
Sarah Cleveland in SB 23 testimony to house COMMITTEE

“SB 23 still leaves the decision-making in the hands of mothers who are seeking abortions and in the hands of those abortionists who provide them,” says Cleveland.

She went on to criticize the provisions in SB 23 allowing abortion for good faith measures, medial necessity, and immediate inducement which ultimately are determined by abortionist doctors.

“The Heartbeat Bill in its current form has no checks and balances. As a professional in this field, I am testifying that It will still be easy to fulfill the requirements in this bill and still abort babies with beating hearts. ”

The crux of the matter according to Cleveland is that abortion is murder and that the murder of any human being was never intended to be regulated under the Constitution.

“Most importantly, murder is against the law of GOD,” says Cleveland. “We cannot expect GOD to bless us when we sit here trying to figure out how best regulate how, when, and where babies may be butchered.”