For years, Planned Parenthood said on its website that “a very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop” by six weeks of pregnancy.
Sometime since July 25 of this year, Planned Parenthood scrubbed that section of its website, which now says: “A part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity. It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound, but it’s not a fully-formed heart — it’s the earliest stage of the heart developing.”
Why the change? A Planned Parenthood spokesperson told the Washington Post:
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“As anti-abortion lawmakers and activists seeking to control people’s health care decisions continue to peddle misinformation and even codify medical inaccuracies into law, it’s critical that people get unbiased information from actual experts, like health care providers and educators.” Julia Bennett, digital education and learning strategy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement in response to questions from The Health 202.
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Bennett also said Planned Parenthood’s website is regularly updated “to ensure that information is medically accurate, reflects the latest science and is accessible to learners.”
Writers have been drawing attention to Planned Parenthood’s correct statement since at least 2015 that a “a very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop” by six weeks of pregnancy. The only reason to scrub the website is to make it conform to political messaging against laws protecting the lives of human beings after that very basic heartbeat is detectable.