Testimony: Ohio Senate Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee
Below is the testimony I delivered before the Ohio Senate Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee on December 13, 2011 regarding House Bill 125, which would prohibit abortion after the medical detection of a fetal heartbeat. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, my name is Seth Drayer and I come before you interested in the fate of House Bill 125. In particular, I want to refer to Division E of the bill’s language, which prohibits the practice of abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. Lines 1 and 5 of Division E give clarity to the thrust of this legislation—not merely to provide the opportunity for detection of a fetal heartbeat, but to prohibit abortion once that heartbeat has been detected. It is this portion of the bill in particular which I champion—for it is another step in our nation’s long march of civil rights. Civil rights means not only providing education of the humanity of the unborn but protecting them from death—just as veritable civil rights for the