But some doctors say that the decision to have an abortion is one that ought to be made among a woman, her family and her health care provider.
Every situation truly is unique and every time I think that Ive heard it all, I have a patient come in and just surprise me by the circumstances of her needing care, said Dr. Sarah Horvath, a family planning fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The organization urged Ohios governor to veto the heartbeat legislation presented in 2016.
Fetal heartbeat legislation could prevent women from seeking an abortion before they even realize they are pregnant, she added.
If they werent intending to become pregnant or taking pregnancy tests routinely, most would have no idea theyre pregnant at that point, Dr. Horvath said.
The Ohio State Medical Association has pushed back against the bill and is very concerned about its plan to criminalize doctors for performing a medical procedure that could be considered a standard of care, said Reggie Fields, a spokesman for the organization.
According to Ms. Hagan, instituting penalties is necessary to prevent abortion providers from disregarding the law.
If a murder is occurring, then there has to be a repercussion for that action, she said.
In other states, like Iowa, similar bills have been signed into law.
For me, its immoral to stop an innocent, beating heart, Iowas governor, Kim Reynolds, said this year.
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging that laws constitutionality, and a county judge granted a temporary injunction to block it from taking effect pending the litigations outcome.
North Dakota passed a heartbeat bill in 2013, but it was overturned by a federal judge.
Next year could bring additional challenges to abortion access.
We fully anticipate when state legislatures come back in full swing in January 2019 that others will follow suit and introduce restrictive legislation, abortion bans and things of that nature, Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Reproductive Freedom Project, said in an interview on Friday. I think what happened yesterday should be a wake-up call on the direct attacks on Roe v. Wade. More than a dozen abortion cases are currently before federal appeals courts, any of which could reach the Supreme Court next year. Now that Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh has replaced Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the court has a conservative majority. Abortion rights groups consider Justice Kavanaugh a threat to Roe v. Wade.
The Trump administration has already made moves to curb reproductive rights, including a regulation that would allow some employers to deny birth control coverage for moral or religious reasons.
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