Ohio has recently adopted the 'heartbeat bill' earlier this year, and I was all on board for that. I am extremely pro-life and do not believe in aborting babies because it is murder. However, I am not sure I agree with the newest bill to be introduced, which would charge doctors with murder if they do not re-implant an ectopic pregnancy....a procedure that is not even medically possible, from what I have read.
The bill introduced to Ohio state legislatures says that doctors must “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into the woman's uterus, or face “abortion murder” charges.
Ohio’s move on ectopic pregnancies – where an embryo implants on the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus rendering the pregnancy unviable – is one of the most extreme bills to date.
An ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition, which can kill a woman if the embryonic tissue grows unchecked.
In addition to ordering doctors to do the impossible or face criminal charges, House Bill 413 bans abortion outright and defines a fertilized egg as an “unborn child”.
However, obstetricians and gynecologists are saying that it is not medically possible to do the transplant.
“I don’t believe I’m typing this again but, that’s impossible,” Ohio OBGYN Dr David Hackney tweeted, “We’ll all be going to jail."
The new Ohio HB413, p.184: To avoid criminal charges, including murder, for abortion, a physician must “…[attempt to] reimplant an ectopic pregnancy into the women’s uterus”
I don’t believe I’m typing this again but, that’s impossible.
We’ll all be going to jail@ACOGAction pic.twitter.com/KtnNRShZLW— David N Hackney MD, FACOG (@DavidNHackney) November 19, 2019
The bill is sponsored by representatives Candice Keller and Ron Hood, and co-sponsored by 19 members of Ohio’s 99-member House.
When asked for comment, Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis declined and said that he was still working on reading the bill, which is “approximately 700 pages long”.
The Guardian also contacted the Susan B Anthony List, a national anti-abortion organization. The organization did not reply to a request for comment.
Keller, Hood and eight of the bill’s 19 co-sponsors did not reply to requests for comment. The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association also did not reply to a request for comment.
Dr. Daniel Grossman tweeted in May that re-implanting an embryo is “pure science fiction," and had a viral response.
Hi @BeckerGOP, I’m a practicing ob-gyn and researcher on abortion and contraception, and thought you might want some help understanding ectopic pregnancy since your bill (HB182) gets some things wrong. I’ll clear up a few things in this thread. https://t.co/BdXYHnCAtI
— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@DrDGrossman) May 8, 2019
Dr. Chris Zahn, vice president at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also weighed in on the topic: “There is no procedure to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy,” he said, “It is not possible to move an ectopic pregnancy from a fallopian tube, or anywhere else it might have implanted, to the uterus."
“Reimplantation is not physiologically possible. Women with ectopic pregnancies are at risk for catastrophic hemorrhage and death in the setting of an ectopic pregnancy, and treating the ectopic pregnancy can certainly save a mom’s life,” Zahn added.
This is definitely an area of grey.
