Ohio Bill Would Pose Strong Challenge To Roe V. Wade; Other States Look To Infantalize Women

The Ohio “heartbeat bill” would ban abortions once it could be determined a fetus has a heartbeat, which can be detected in as early as 18 days for some women.

The controversial legislation is one of the most stringent anti-abortion plans to be introduced in a state legislature to date.

It clearly challenges the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade mandate, under which a woman has the right to abort a fetus until it is “viable,” meaning that it’s “potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid.” It’s only at the point of viability — “usually placed at about seven months” — that states can restrict abortion.

Because Republicans control all branches of government in Ohio, the bill has a chance of passage.

“We don’t bury people with beating hearts, because the heartbeat is a sign of life,” said Janet Folger Porter (pictured), president of Faith2Action, who helped craft the bill’s language. “We are just applying that same measurement to this end of life and I believe the court is going to recognize — just like it does with life at the other end of the spectrum — it’s going to recognize this line of life early on.”

Similar bills are also being considered by legislators in Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma, and being discussed in Kansas and Arizona, Porter said.

Other states are looking at laws that would infantalize women.

In Indiana, a state senate committee today endorsed a bill that would require doctors to tell women who want to have an abortion that human life begins at conception and that a fetus might feel pain at or before 20 weeks.

The Texas state senate today heard testimony on a bill that says a woman planning to have an abortion has the option to take a sonogram and listen to the baby’s heartbeat.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.