On November 14, 2019 House Bill 413 was introduced in the Ohio Legislature. The bill calls for an outright ban on abortion and defines a fertilized egg as an “unborn child”. It charges doctors, women and children as young as 13 with “abortion murder” if they “perform or have an abortion,” a crime punishable by life in prison. The bill also proposes the introduction of a new crime, “aggravated abortion murder,” which would be punishable by death.
The bill also requires doctors to “reimplant” an ectopic pregnancy (when the embryo implants in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus, thus rendering the pregnancy unviable) into the uterus or else face the charge of abortion murder, despite the fact that this procedure does not exist in medical science. In a statement given to the Guardian, Dr. Chris Zahn, vice-president of practice activities at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said “There is no procedure to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” and that “[i]t is not possible to move an ectopic pregnancy from a fallopian tube, or anywhere else it might have implanted, to the uterus.”
The bill was sponsored by representatives Candice Keller and Ron Hood, and co-sponsored by 19 members of Ohio’s 99-member House.
Update:
On November 18, 2019, House Bill 413 died in the House after referral to the Committee on Criminal Justice.