During the past two decades, many states across the country have passed laws and policies that delay abortion care and make it less accessible. Among these restrictions (which also include counseling requirements and mandatory waiting periods) are requirements that individuals undergo an ultrasound, in some cases including detection of fetal cardiac activity, before receiving an abortion.
Although ultrasounds and fetal cardiac activity tests are legitimate components of pregnancy care, some anti-abortion policymakers have moved to require them for abortion care in order to complicate access to abortion, personify the fetus or embryo, and, ultimately, dissuade people from obtaining abortion care.
Ultrasounds, while often used in the context of abortion care to determine gestational duration, are not considered medically necessary prior to most abortions, and some laws mandating them include fully unnecessary requirements that providers share ultrasound images and information with the patient. Fetal cardiac activity tests (often referred to as “fetal heartbeat” tests, even though, as part of abortion care, they are often performed before the embryo’s heart has developed) are not medically necessary for any abortion.