The Heartbeat Bill is an independent campaign seeking to introduce the UK’s first heartbeat bill into law. The bill (not yet drafted) will protect all babies in the womb from the moment of a detectable heartbeat (between 6-12 weeks) in non extreme cases. The extreme cases that will be permitted by the bill will be: to save the life of the mother, rape, and for fetal fetal abnormality.
Around this the bill will aim to vastly improve information, education, equality and safety around abortion, including:
- Ensuring that all abortions are conducted in registered clinics with ultrasounds
- Ensure that no abortion is permitted beyond 6 weeks without an
- ultrasound scan being conducted
- Clear exemption criteria being met
- Remove state funding for abortions in non extreme cases
- The removal of down syndrome, clef lip, clef palate and club foot as valid reasons to terminate
- Essure mandatory collection of NHS numbers
- Ensuring providers give accurate and up-to-date information to women about the long and short term consequences of abortion.
- Attempt to build in counselling, cooling off periods and independent support into Abortion pathway process
UPDATE: The definitive case for the Heartbeat bill is not yet published. It is likely that it will be published in chapters as follows:
- The Human Case
- The Moral Case
- The Women’s Health Case
- The Economic Case
- The Political case
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