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BY TRACY PFEIFFER

ANCHOR: MEGAN MURPHY

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A Republican state representative in Ohio has introduced what’s been dubbed the “Heartbeat Bill,” legislation which would outlaw abortions after the first fetal heartbeat is detected -- and supporters are rolling out a controversial tactic to get their point across.

“A fetus called as a witness? Well, that is the next step in the Ohio abortion battle. The group Faith2Action says that it is going to bring a pregnant woman before the House health committee and then project an ultrasound image of her uterus onto a screen and the heartbeat will be visible in color.” (WLWT)

JENNIFER WISHON: “...heartbeats can be detected as early as 18 days in most pregnancies, and by 6 weeks in most cases.” (CBN)

Opponents say the bill would, in effect, make abortion illegal before a woman even knows she’s pregnant. Nine weeks is well within the federally-defined time frame for legal abortions, but states have always had the right to impose further restrictions, such as waiting periods. However, no state has ever passed legislation quite like this--

AL GERHARDSTEIN: “This bill totally eliminates the notion of viability and it pushes the ban way up into the first trimester, which is clearly unconstitutional.” (CBN)

An opinion writer for the Daily Targum wonders, Where does the mother play into all this?

“It is rather telling that Faith2Action's plan does not mention the pregnant woman at all. ...Faith2Action is valuing the fetus over the woman. This plan reduces the woman to nothing more than a vessel whose only purpose is to carry the fetus to term.”

And the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio tells Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer, this whole thing is just a stunt.

"It's obvious this committee is a lot more interested in making headlines than in giving women better access to health care or doing something to bring jobs to this state or trying to fix the state's budget mess... Instead, what Ohioans are getting is an absolute circus..."

But the woman behind the fetal testimony tactic -- Faith2Action’s Janet Folger Porter -- says the bill is just telling the government to do its job.

JANET FOLGER PORTER: “As Thomas Jefferson said, their role is to protect human life. He said, ‘The care of human life and not its destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.’ Get government on this issue -- that’s why government exists. To protect human life. And that heartbeat is a moment we’re going to measure.”

Interestingly, the group Ohio Right to Life has not endorsed the contested bill, saying the legislation will definitely get overturned. But in an interview with ABC, a member of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati says -- that’s kind of the point. Anti-abortion groups want this fight to go all the way to the top.

PAULA WESTWOOD: “The goal for a lot of these legislative strategies is to have something that would get through committee, would get out and would be declared unconstitutional and make it up through the courts to the Supreme Court.”

(AOC)
Think Progress reports Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” isn’t the only one popping up in state legislatures -- Arizona already has one in the works, and Georgia, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma are watching closely in order to develop their own versions. SOC
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/01/ohio-fetus-testimony/
 

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