Citation

Tanne JH. BMJ 2019; 367: l6818.

Affiliation

New York.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmj.l6818

PMID

31801771

Abstract

Legislators in Ohio, USA, have introduced a bill that would outlaw abortion and could charge doctors and patients with “abortion murder.” In ectopic pregnancies, doctors would be required to try to re-implant the pregnancy in the woman’s uterus.

The bill says, “No person shall purposely, and with prior calculation and design, perform or have an abortion. Whoever violates this section is guilty of aggravated abortion murder . . . A court shall regard the unborn child victim of an aggravated abortion murder or abortion murder as a person who is less than thirteen years of age.” Punishment would be 15 years to life in prison.

There are certain exceptions, however, and a doctor would not face punishment if an abortion was performed because a woman’s life was …

Language: en