A heartbeat at six weeks is "a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman's body." - @staceyabrams https://t.co/v9aOk4LFqc pic.twitter.com/iROlw7BE1L

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 22, 2022

Shortly after, Planned Parenthood altered its website without any acknowledgement to say that under the five to six-week mark of pregnancy "a part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity. It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound, but it's not a fully-formed heart — it's the earliest stage of the heart developing."

The website had previous said that "a very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop," as National Review's John McCormack noted on Twitter.

Planned Parenthood edited its own website to conform to political messaging against heartbeat laws:

2/2 pic.twitter.com/9py7V6IFoX

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) September 22, 2022

As the Post Millennial points out, Mayo Clinic says "A baby's cardiovascular system begins developing five weeks into pregnancy, or three weeks after conception. The hearts starts to beat shortly afterward."

More via the Post Millennial's Libby Emmons:

In 2021, in response to the pro-life laws that were proposed then passed in Texas, that prohibited abortions from taking place after a fetal heartbeat could be detected, a post on Planned Parenthood read "In truth, the 'fetal heartbeat' talking point is misinformation intended to deceive the press and public. As gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Gunter explains, at six weeks of fetal development, there is no 'heart' that beats — instead, there is detectable activity within a four-millimeter wide growth known as a fetal pole."

In 2017, The Atlantic reported that "At six weeks, the 'heartbeat' is not audible; it is visible, a flickering that takes place between 120 and 160 times per minute on a black-and-white playback screen. As cardiac cells develop, they begin to send electrical pulses that cause their neighbors to contract. Scientists can observe the same effect if they culture cells in a petri dish." This article, too, was in response to pro-life laws being written in some states.

Prior to these laws being proposed, there appears to have been broad consensus that fetal heartbeats began somewhere around 5 or 6 weeks post conception, and that the beating heart was visible on ultra-sounds, and could be audible as well.

"If you're wondering when you'll hear baby's heartbeat, fear not," Parents Magazine reports, "The answer may be sooner than you think. In fact, the 'whoosh whoosh' of your little one's little organ is one of the first things doctors look (and listen) for. A fetal heartbeat may first be detected by a vaginal ultrasound as early as 5 1/2 to 6 weeks."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/planned-parenthood-stealth-edits-website-match-stacey-abrams-heartbeat-claim