South Carolina is aiming to become the latest state to pass a so-called “heartbeat” pro-life bill. The bill prohibits the abortion of any preborn child once a heartbeat is detected, except in instances of rape or incest. The state’s House Judiciary Committee approved the bill last Tuesday, and it had already easily passed in the state’s Senate. The measure is expected to pass in the Republican-controlled state House and be signed into law by Republican Governor Henry McMaster.

Expecting fierce legal opposition, South Carolina’s Citizens for Life executive director Holly Gatling noted that the state is ready to defend the bill. She observed, “Our pro-life attorney general Alan Wilson has pledged to defend the law which gives a pregnant woman the right to know her baby has a heartbeat and the right to hear the heartbeat if she so chooses.”

Indeed, the legal opposition will come. All states that have passed similar legislation, including Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Ohio, have been stymied by federal judges. Yet ten other states are seeking to introduce similar heartbeat laws, which brilliantly and viscerally demonstrate the sound scientific argument for the genuine humanity of the preborn baby. Six weeks into a pregnancy is roughly when a baby’s heart begins to beat. Go ahead, abortion extremists, deny that science.