Pennsylvania legislation · 2025-2026 Regular Session
Pennsylvania HB1740: An Act amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in abortion, further providing for legislative intent, providing for fetal heartbeat examination and further providing for medical consultation and judgment and for abortion on unborn child of 24 or more weeks gestational age; and making an editorial change.
Status: In committee, July 16, 2025
What the bill says
Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in abortion, further providing for legislative intent, providing for fetal heartbeat examination and further providing for medical consultation and judgment and for abortion on unborn child of 24 or more weeks gestational age; and making an editorial change.
From the introduced text, July 16, 2025:
Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in abortion, further providing for legislative intent, providing for fetal heartbeat examination and further providing for medical consultation and judgment and for abortion on unborn child of 24 or more weeks gestational age; and making an editorial change. The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows: Section 1. Section 3202(b) of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes is amended by adding a paragraph to read: § 3202. Legislative intent. * * * (b) Conclusions.--Reliable and convincing evidence has compelled the General Assembly to conclude and the General Assembly does hereby solemnly declare and find that: * * * (6) The following: (i) Fetal heartbeat has become a key medical predictor that an unborn individual will reach live birth. (ii) Cardiac activity begins at a biologically identifiable moment in time, normally when the fetal heart is formed in the gestational sac. (iii) In order to make an informed choice about whether to continue the pregnancy, a pregnant woman has a legitimate interest in knowing the likelihood of the fetus surviving to full-term birth based upon the presence of cardiac activity. * * * Section 2. Title 18 is amended by adding a section to read: § 3203.1. Fetal heartbeat examination. Before performing an abortion, a …