Monday, January 23, 2017, 8:55 AM

Monday, January 23, 2017, 8:55 AM

Legislation was filed Thursday to strengthen Oklahoma’s Heartbeat Informed Consent Act by providing a scientific definition of when life begins, with the first heartbeat. Sen. Paul Scott, R-Duncan, filed Senate Bill 710 to prohibit abortions if the embryonic or fetal heartbeat of the unborn child is audible.

“I am pro-life and believe in the sanctity of life. I don’t believe in abortions but since we can’t go against the federal government, we must do all we can within our constitutional rights. As a state, we can provide a clear, scientific definition that life begins with the first heartbeat,” said Scott.

During the fifth week of pregnancy, or the third week after conception, a baby’s heart, brain, spinal cord, and other organs begin to form.

“Our abortion laws are outdated and based on old technology and science. Roe v. Wade was settled 43 years ago. Now doctors have the tools and knowledge to not only sustain life several weeks earlier than was possible back then but now they can even create life in the lab,” said Scott. “Instead of offering to let the mother hear her baby’s heartbeat before she terminates its life as is current law, we need to fight for that baby and acknowledge that it is in fact a human being with the right to live.”

Critics, however, say the bill would ban abortion before some women even know they’re pregnant.

Similar legislation enacted in two other states has been declared unconstitutional twice by federal judges, and the Supreme Court declined to review those decisions, which means the lower courts’ rulings stand as the law of the land. The states that passed that legislation are now forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers to cover the legal fees of the pro-choice parties who sued to get the laws struck down.