When the interpretation of science that provides basis for medical decisions is influenced by political agendas should we be concerned?
To provide examination of the recent claim regarding fetal heartbeats by politician Stacey Abrams, Pregnancy Help News put the question to Dr. Brent Boles.
Boles, who has also weighed in on the harm of political narratives influencing medical information, is a board-certified OB/GYN and Medical Director for Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Rescue® Network.
“The science has been clear for many years,” Boles said. “In the human embryo, the heart begins to beat and pump blood by 5 ½ weeks of gestation, or 3 ½ weeks after conception.”
“Only those who wish to find reasons to criticize the protections that heartbeat laws provide for the living but not yet born human beings are denying the science,” he said.
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Boles explained how at this point of gestation the myocardial tissue is tubular and does not yet have four discreet chambers, but it is doing what the adult heart does - pumps blood - and it is the first organ in the embryo to begin performing its intended function. This explanation is supported by a 2005 study published in the National Library of Medicine.
“Abortion’s science deniers would have us all believe that there is only random uncoordinated electrical activity at this point,” said Boles. “The science shows that not only is the activity coordinated at this point, it generates an EKG similar to that seen in an adult heart.”
Tweet This: “Only those who wish to find reasons to criticize the protections that heartbeat laws provide are denying the science”
Current Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abrams made her false claim about fetal heartbeats in September in a panel discussion in Atlanta.
“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks,” she stated. “It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”
From a purely scientific viewpoint, you would expect Abrams’ statement to be regarded at the very least as hyperbolic, with journalists calling it out as false. Yet with the willing participation of the media, this false narrative will hang out there, misleading those who are inclined to accept it.
This misinformation is dangerous and cannot stand.
Boles, who has practiced medicine for decades, pointed out that more than 30 years ago in his embryology class he used a textbook by Dr. Keith Moore, arguably the world’s most foremost expert in the field of embryology, and the book taught that the human embryonic heart begins to beat at 5 ½ to 6 weeks of gestation.
He noted as well that it’s only been since the advent of pro-life heartbeat laws that the existence of fetal heartbeats has been contested.
“It was not until states started passing heartbeat laws that anyone disputed when the heart really begins to beat,” Boles said.
Indeed, the abortion industry has responded by propagating and seeking to influence by any means, including the use of politicians.
Boles noted that their “Response to these pieces of legislation was predictable and typical for them: science denial.”
Tweet This: “It was not until states started passing heartbeat laws that anyone disputed when the heart really begins to beat” - Dr. Brent Boles
Boles likewise responded to claims in a New York Times piece from February that there is no heart at this point and the ultrasound simply detects electrical activity and the machine creates sound from that activity.
“This is not what an ultrasound does,” he said.
“An ultrasound transmits sound waves into the body being studied and then measures the reflections from tissues and fluids of differing densities,” said Boles, “and also uses Doppler sound waves to detect fluid in motion. This is very similar to Doppler radar being used to detect the motion of the air and evaluate the weather.”
“The ultrasound does not detect the electrical activity,” he explained. “It detects the end result of that electrical activity, the rhythmic contractions of cardiac muscle tissue that result in the pumping of blood.”
A scientific article published by researchers at Oxford University in England also covered evidence that the human heart is beating by 5 ½ weeks.
This is just a sampling of the scientific data supporting correction of the false narrative put forth by Abrams and others about embryonic heartbeats.
Boles said the information he provided was there “for any rational and objective observer to evaluate.”
Jesus encouraged His followers to have “ears to hear” many times because He did not want people to suffer oppression which would come from not being willing to know truth.
Zechariah warns specifically about oppressing orphans and widows and devising evil against others: “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and plugged their ears from hearing,” (Zechariah 7:11).
This current pro-abortion deception efforts regarding medical information must be met with truth. The lives of the unborn - indeed, our very future as a civilization - are at stake.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
