Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is getting left in the dust when it comes to her presidential run. Numerous GOP candidates have pulled far ahead of her, and the money is rapidly dwindling. To shore up some final support, she’s reaching to the most loyal of her base — the conservative Christians.

To keep them happy, Bachmann has now proposed the “Heartbeat Informed Consent Act,” a congressional bill that would make it federally mandatory that a woman who wants to terminate a pregnancy would have to undergo an ultrasound, and that the technician or doctor would have to “make the unborn child’s heartbeat visible through ultrasound, describe the cardiac activity, and make the baby’s heartbeat audible, if the child is old enough for it to be detectable.”

There’s only one small problem with the legislation as proposed: It’s totally unconstitutional.

Texas Governor Rick Perry proposed the same mandatory ultrasound bill in his state, making it part of a slate of “emergency” legislation he demanded the legislature pass immediately. The bill was passed, then promptly challenged. Federal Judge Sam Sparks allowed the mandatory ultrasound itself to be left as an abortion restriction, but blocked the part of the law stating that every woman has to listen to the doctor explain fetal development and hear the fetus’s heartbeat, calling it a violation of freedom of speech to force doctors to provide the details and to force women to listen.

The Supreme Court agreed, refusing to hear the case when state lawmakers tried to kick the ruling up to the higher court for appeal.

As MPR notes, Congresswoman Bachmann hasn’t managed to make it to one House vote since August. But now she has time to propose a bill she knows cannot become law even if it does pass, just to try and shore up political support?

I guess she really is campaigning hard for president.

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By Scott (Regina's belly) via Wikimedia Commons