Ohio HB 194: "Heartbeat" Again?

Ohio House Bill 194 is the "Heartbeat Bill", sponsored by Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (male, R, Napoleon). Like so much GOP legislation, it would provide an ideological "fix" to a non-existant problem. HB 194 would prohibit abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected. Such a stipulation would effectively ban all abortions and give Ohio the most restrictive anti-abortion law in America. It passed the Ohio House last summer, but was never taken up in the state Senate. (Cooler heads, maybe?)

But now the bill's supporters are again pushing hard for hearings and a Senate vote. If passed by the Senate and signed by Kay-suck, it would almost surely be struck down on constitutional grounds, given that Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land. But with or without Roe, the Heartbeat Bill is an extremist piece of crap that would make a purely awful law.

(It should be noted that since the topic is abortion, and I am of the male gender, my opinions are strictly that of a second-class citizen. Nevertheless, here goes.)

No one is literally "pro"-abortion. No one is "for" it, nobody promotes it, and women do not use it as after-the-fact contraception. It has nothing to do with morality. But history teaches that abortion has always occured and will always occur, at least to some small degree. Attempts to legislate it out of existence are cruel, dangerous, expensive, and ultimately futile. Whatever the circumstances, a strongly motivated woman will not be deterred by some stupid law. The law may force her to another city, state, or country. Her procedure may be legal or illegal, done by a doctor or not. She may willingly accept risks to her health or to her life. She may even take her own life. But any attempt to legally force a woman to give birth to a baby she really, truly does not want is sheer folly. And if she does in fact give birth, it's an unwanted child. Not good. It's true enough -- it's her body, her choice. So we simply must keep abortion as a safe and legal option. We must.

Specifically regarding HB 194, I must take exception to the proposition that human life begins at the instant of conception. It does not. Nor does it begin at the first (amplified) audible heartbeat. Those conditions do not represent actual life, but potential life. They are not sustainable, at that point, outside the womb.

Let's say you go into your kitchen, get all the necessary ingredients to make a cake, mix 'em all up and pour it into cake pan. That's the moment of cake conception, but is it an actual cake? No, it's just a puddle of wet flour -- a potential cake. Only when you put it in the oven and bake it at the proper temperature for the proper duration will you produce a real cake.

At the earliest stages of gestation, we're protoplasm, not teddy bears.

Big picture, contemplating an abortion is the most personal, private decision imaginable. It should be, and it's sure as hell none of Lynn Fucking Wachtmann's business. Some folks see it one way, some the other, and both will act accordingly. It's OK. We have room for both.