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Earlier this year, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill that prohibits abortions from being performed when a heartbeat can be detected.
According to NYTimes.com, the bill is one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country and it is "one that would penalise doctors for performing an abortion when a fetal heartbeat can be detected."
According to the article, written by Christina Caron, "a foetal heartbeat can be detected by an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, a time during which most women are unaware they are pregnant."
Beyond this, the bill offers no consideration for pregnancies that are a result of rape or incest.
Now, the state is trying to pass a bill that will further criminalise abortions.
An article in Nylon.com reports that "the bill would allow an 'unborn human' to be classified as a 'person' under Ohio's criminal code, which means that abortions may become punishable by life in prison or the death penalty. There would be no exceptions for abortions even in cases involving rape, incest, or danger to a woman's life."
READ MORE: "I perform abortions for a living – and I love my job"
In a Wosu Radio report, Jaime Miracle of NARAL Pro Choice Ohio says that the bill would punish both women and doctors. "This could criminalise women who have miscarriages that might seem suspicious to somebody or could criminalise in-vitro fertilisation procedures that might end up with an embryo," Miracle says in the article.
The banning of abortions is said to be a war on women's bodies, especially in the case that the pregnancy is esteemed more than the pregnant woman's rights. But for others who are for these bills being passed, the banning of abortions is for the benefit of humanity.
“We are saving more of the unborn than any state in America, and what better thing can we do?” Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant reportedly said in the article.
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