Findings – Purpose

(a)Findings. The general assembly finds: Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!(1) As the Supreme Court has stated in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 852 (1992), “Abortion is a unique act” and is “fraught with consequences…for the woman who must live with the implications of her decision.” As the Supreme Court stated in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 159 (2007) “it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.” The Supreme Court has acknowledged, in Casey at 882, that the effect of an abortion on the life of the unborn child is “relevant, if not dispositive” information for the patient’s decision; (2) Current standards of medical care mandate the performance of an ultrasound prior to the performance of inducing of an abortion. Determining accurate information regarding gestational development is important for purposes of informed consent, as well as making essential preparation for the procedure itself; (3) In this state ultrasounds are regularly provided to women seeking an abortion to determine if they are eligible for a medication abortion, and to review other factors related that cannot be determined prior to an examination of the patient; (4) In the forty-seven (47) years since the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), there have been substantial advances in scientific methods and medical technology that have significantly expanded knowledge and understanding of prenatal life and development, and the effects of abortion on the physical and psychological health of women; (5) At conception, a new and genetically distinct human being is formed; (6) The state has a legitimate, substantial, and compelling interest in protecting the rights of all human beings, including the fundamental and absolute right of unborn human beings to life, liberty, and all rights protected by the Fourteenth and Ninth Amendments to the United States Constitution; (7) The presence of a fetal heartbeat is medically significant because the heartbeat is a discernible sign of life at every stage of human existence; (8) An unborn child’s heart begins to beat at five (5) weeks gestational age, and blood begins to flow during the sixth week; (9) Depending on what type of equipment is utilized, an unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected as early as six (6) to eight (8) weeks gestational age; (10) An unborn child’s heartbeat can consistently be made audible using a handheld Doppler fetal heart rate device by twelve (12) weeks gestational age; (11) A pregnancy can be confirmed through the detection of the unborn child’s heartbeat; (12) By the beginning of the second trimester, physicians view the absence of a fetal heartbeat as an instance of fetal death; (13) It is standard medical practice to monitor an unborn child’s heartbeat throughout pregnancy and labor to measure the heart rate and rhythm of the unborn child, which averages between one hundred ten (110) and one hundred sixty (160) beats per minute. This monitoring is used as an indicator of the health of the unborn child; (14) Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, medical professionals have expanded their understanding of life in utero to include, among other indicia, the presence of a heartbeat, brain development, a viable pregnancy or viable intrauterine pregnancy during the first trimester of pregnancy, and the ability to experience pain; (15) The presence of a fetal heartbeat is the best indicator of a viable pregnancy. The detectability of a fetal heartbeat is a strong predictor of survivability to term, especially if the heartbeat is present at eight (8) weeks gestational age or later; (16) When a fetal heartbeat is detected between eight (8) and twelve (12) weeks gestational age, the rate of miscarriage is extremely low, with approximately ninety-eight percent (98%) of naturally conceived pregnancies carrying to term; (17) At eight (8) weeks gestational age, an unborn child begins to show spontaneous movements, and reflexive responses to touch. The majority of an unborn child’s body is responsive to touch by fourteen (14) weeks gestational age; (18) Peripheral cutaneous sensory receptors, which are the receptors that feel pain, develop in an unborn child at around seven (7) to eight (8) weeks gestational age. Sensory receptors develop in the palmar regions during the tenth week of gestational age, growing throughout the unborn child’s body by sixteen (16) weeks gestational age; (19) An unborn child’s nervous system is established by six (6) weeks gestational age. At this stage, the basic pattering of the early nervous system is in place and is the basis for tremendous growth and increased complexity built upon this basic pattern. The earliest neurons of the cortical brain, responsible for thinking, memory, and higher level functions, are established by the fourth week; (20) Syn