Ohio Governor Signs Six-Week ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban

Ohio is now the third state in 2019 to enact a “heartbeat” ban, which bars aborting a fetus with a detectable heartbeat.

Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed Senate Bill 23 April 11, and even before he put pen to paper, the American Civil Liberties Union pledged to immediately sue to block the law.

Both proponents and opponents of the bill say it’s among the strictest of the abortion laws in the country. Fetal heartbeats are present usually around the sixth week of pregnancy, and anti-abortion advocates say the law will prohibit roughly 82 percent of the abortions in Ohio, the ...