By no means am I breaking new ground by wondering if Television networks are pushing any sort of political agenda. However, last night, Emily and I caught an episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy (to my displeasure). Outside of even more obvious theological and ethical problems present in the show's plot, there was an underlying message that was unsettling to me and Emily.
A woman on the show was pregnant and freaking out because she felt that there was a problem with the baby growing inside of her. She went to a pediatrician in the hospital in order to get an ultrasound of the baby. The woman said she was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant. They could see no heartbeat on the monitor, and the she became very upset at this. However, the sonographer said, repeatedly, "There's nothing to be nervous about, you can't usually detect a heartbeat in a fetus until 8 weeks into the pregnancy." She reiterated their inability to see this heartbeat until 8 weeks four different times in the show. Now, in all fairness, they did see the heartbeat by the end of the show. However, I thought Emily was going to throw something at the computer as she became quite angry whenever they said the "8 weeks" statistic.
After even a very preliminary search online, I found several places where it said 22 days from fertilization (five weeks into pregnancy) the heart is beating. Furthermore, I saw this piece of news today. Ohio state representative Lynne Wachtmann is unveiling a "Heartbeat Bill." Their findings have shown that a heartbeat can be detected "as soon as 18 days after conception." The bill would prohibit women from being able to have an abortion after this period of time.
It took me all of three minutes to find those facts. So.... a "medical" drama must do some research.... right? Were the producers/writers pushing any kind of pro-choice political agenda in touting their "8 weeks" statistic repeatedly or were Emily and I just reading into it a little too much?
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