This Pro-Life Filmmaker Says Christians Shouldn't Support "Heartbeat Bills", Here's Why

In a convicting and eye-opening op-ed for Faithwire, the pro-life filmmaker behind Babies Are Murdered Here, Marcus Pittman, explained why Christians might not want to break out the party hats and celebrate the slew of new "heartbeat bills" across the nation.

Don't mistake him—it's not because Pittman has an ounce of support for any type or reason for abortion. Rather, Pittman argues, Christians shouldn't be quick to support abortion regulations like heartbeat bills because they will not work and will ultimately lead to more abortions.

As the creator of such a groundbreaking film (which, I might add, had no small influence on Apologia Studios and their gospel-centered abortion ministry which now equips over 350 churches worldwide to work to end abortion) Pittman expects people to be surprised that he ardently opposes heartbeat bills.

"I should be on my knees praising God that these bills will save some babies. After all, the multi-million dollar pro-life lobby groups are practically popping champagne," Pittman writes. "Instead, I am writing this Debbie Downer of an op-ed, because here is the truth: the heartbeat bill is single-handedly the absolute worst piece of pro-life legislation ever conceived by the minds of men."

So, why is it that Pittman isn't claiming these bills a victory for the protection of the unborn?

"For starters," he explains, "these laws are impossible to enforce. Read the text of any pro-life heartbeat bill ask yourself this: who has to prove that there is a heartbeat? Are we pretending there is a world in which every abortion clinic is going to hire a certified pro-life ultrasound nurse who will honestly do the work required to find a heartbeat? The pressing, searching, roving, seeking with the tools required to find a tiny heartbeat?"

"No. And why would they?"

“A person who intends to perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman shall determine whether there is a detectable fetal heartbeat of the unborn human individual the pregnant woman is carrying," Pittman, continues, quoting from Ohio's SB-23 bill. "The method of determining the presence of a fetal heartbeat shall be consistent with the person’s good faith understanding of standard medical practice.”

"So let us understand this perfectly," Pittman explains, mincing no words. "People who have sociopathically chosen a career in which the blood of murdered children will foot the bill for their homes, cars, and families are expected to act here in good faith We’re expecting them to do the work necessary to allow their paying patient to hear their child’s heartbeat before they murder it?"

Pittman explains that he didn't always oppose heartbeat bills so strongly. Like many of us, he rejoiced that at least some babies would be saved.

That is, he says, until he met a woman named Sarah Cleveland, a professional ultrasound technician in Ohio who informed Pittman that "detecting a heartbeat is incredibly easy to purposefully miss if one wants to miss it and how easy it is to say there is no heartbeat on the baby when there is."

"See, ultrasound is completely operator dependent," Pittman adds. "One can manipulate the scan however they want. And in the hands of an abortion provider, that scan can prove to be deadly."

In the lengthy, yet thoroughly descriptive Facebook video below, Cleveland explains exactly why the burden to find the baby's heartbeat should not be placed upon the person being paid to kill it:

"Somehow," Pittman continues, "the ones whose livelihood comes from ‘performing the abortion’ will ‘in good faith’ find every single heartbeat? Let’s all hold our breath, shall we?"

In addition to the obvious conflict of interest at work in tasking a baby's hitman with the one job that will save its life, Pittman declares that regulating in-office abortion procedures will actually lead to more early-term abortions by the Morning After Pill. 

With a healthy dose of sarcasm, Pittman concedes that there is a bit of good coming from these bills, that is, if you are part of the mainstream pro-life lobbyist groups: "They will be able to go to their donors, beat their chest, and say they have accomplished something. This will allow them to ask for more money to fight for this useless law in court, all the while bragging about how many lives that will be saved because laws like this magically make abortion doctors have ‘good faith.’ Oh, all of the faith they have created!"