Medical Stages of a Woman's Pregnancy
By: Rebecca Jeffrey
Updated: February 22, 2013
Two controversial abortion bills coming out of the Arkansas House.
Thursday the House passed a 20-week ban on abortions known as the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" by a vote of 80 to 10.
The same bill cleared the Senate earlier in the week and is now on the way to Governor Mike Beebe's desk for his signature.
Not long after passing the 20-week ban, House lawmakers passed an even more restrictive "12-week ban" sponsored by Senator Jason Rapert.
Exceptions include rape, incest or if it risks the "health and life" of the mother.
Senate Bill 134 cleared the house 68 to 20 with 2 members voting present.
With these bills in both the state and national spotlights, we wanted to get a full understanding of the medical aspect of the legislation.
"The signs and symptoms of pregnancy usually start around the 6th week," OB/GYN at Parkhill Clinic for Women, Dr. Scott Bailey said.
Dr. Bailey has delivered almost 9,000 babies and said you can hear a fetal heartbeat as early as six weeks with a specialized ultrasound .
"Could hook up a monitor that shows Doppler flow study through the heart and you could hear a heart beat," he said.
But how early a heartbeat can be detected really depends on the medical technology being used.
"You could not hear a heart beat with a a Fetoscope until 20 weeks and a lot of people use that as a perimeter of when can you hear a heart beat."
Dr. Bailey said due to medical advancements fetuses could live outside the womb around this time, but with risks.
"When you are born around 22, 23, 24 weeks you've got about a 50/50 chance that you would live, but you've got about an 80 to 90 percent chance there would be some neurological impairments. When the baby is a pound or less when it's born, then many of the systems just aren't developed yet, particularly the brain."
One medical aspect in the Little Rock legislation, when a fetus is capable of feeling pain, is a question doctors say they just don't have the answer to.
"It's so subjective no one really knows," Dr. Bailey said.
Thursday the House passed a 20-week ban on abortions known as the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" by a vote of 80 to 10.
The same bill cleared the Senate earlier in the week and is now on the way to Governor Mike Beebe's desk for his signature.
Not long after passing the 20-week ban, House lawmakers passed an even more restrictive "12-week ban" sponsored by Senator Jason Rapert.
Exceptions include rape, incest or if it risks the "health and life" of the mother.
Senate Bill 134 cleared the house 68 to 20 with 2 members voting present.
With these bills in both the state and national spotlights, we wanted to get a full understanding of the medical aspect of the legislation.
"The signs and symptoms of pregnancy usually start around the 6th week," OB/GYN at Parkhill Clinic for Women, Dr. Scott Bailey said.
Dr. Bailey has delivered almost 9,000 babies and said you can hear a fetal heartbeat as early as six weeks with a specialized ultrasound .
"Could hook up a monitor that shows Doppler flow study through the heart and you could hear a heart beat," he said.
But how early a heartbeat can be detected really depends on the medical technology being used.
"You could not hear a heart beat with a a Fetoscope until 20 weeks and a lot of people use that as a perimeter of when can you hear a heart beat."
Dr. Bailey said due to medical advancements fetuses could live outside the womb around this time, but with risks.
"When you are born around 22, 23, 24 weeks you've got about a 50/50 chance that you would live, but you've got about an 80 to 90 percent chance there would be some neurological impairments. When the baby is a pound or less when it's born, then many of the systems just aren't developed yet, particularly the brain."
One medical aspect in the Little Rock legislation, when a fetus is capable of feeling pain, is a question doctors say they just don't have the answer to.
"It's so subjective no one really knows," Dr. Bailey said.
