Their so-called “heartbeat” bill wasn’t extreme enough. Ohio’s Republican lawmakers have been in the news again this week for proposing to make all abortions illegal and charge doctors who perform abortion with aggravated murder, subject to a life sentence or the death penalty. But that’s not enough. In the same proposal, they’ve actually “invented” a medical procedure that doesn’t even exist and is impossible to perform.
- In Ohio, anti-abortion-rights groups and 20 Republican lawmakers recently proposed an abortion ban that would, in most cases, consider doctors who perform abortions guilty of aggravated murder.
- The new proposal would also require doctors to attempt to reimplant ectopic pregnancies in the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies occur when a fertilized egg attaches itself outside the uterus, where it can't grow.
- The Ohio proposal ignores the fact that reimplanting an ectopic pregnancy in the uterus is "physiologically impossible," said Dr. Chris Zahn, the vice president of practice activities at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
- Attempting to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy can be extremely dangerous, but treating it correctly can save a pregnant person's life.
Ectopic pregnancies occur when a fertilized egg attaches itself outside the uterus, where it can't develop. I’ve most often heard of this occurring in the fallopian tubes but this article mentions other locations, even including the cervix. Ectopic pregnancies kill thousands of women each year. But, here, don’t take my word for it. This article has the facts (something Ohio Republicans don’t seem concerned with):