restrict access to abortion it s fetal heartbeat. states like texas and georgia want the public to believe that most abortions should be banned after just six weeks of gestation, because that s when a heartbeat is detected. wrong again. medical and reproductive experts say an embryo does not even have a developed heart at that stage, let alone a heartbeat. if that s the case, what is that sound that s picked up by the ultrasound? well, doctor niche of irma, physician who provides abortion services and the fellow of the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists, explains to the texas tribune quote, when i used the stethoscope to listen to a patient s heart, the sound that i hear, that s typical you here is the heartbeat that s created by the opening and the closing of the cardiac valves. in six weeks of gestation, those valves don t exist. those valves don t exists. the flickering we see on the ultrasound, super early into