Ohio lawmakers have proposed legislation that would require doctors to reimplant ectopic pregnancies, which occur outside of the womb, into the uterus.
The proposal is part of a bill that is an update to the state’s so-called ‘heartbeat bill’ that banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is as early as the sixth week of pregnancy, before some women even know they’re pregnant.
The ‘heartbeat bill’ was signed into law in April, but was struck in down in July by a federal judge.
In the new bill, proposed by anti-abortion groups and more than 20 Republican legislators, a fetus would be legally considered a person and doctors who perform abortions would could be charged with aggravated murder.
This means they could face a life sentence in prison or the death penalty.
Doctors would also be required to attempt to implant an ectopic pregnancy – which are hardly ever viable – into a woman’s uterus, which a gynecologist tells DailyMail.com is physically impossible and could put a mother’s life at risk.
An OBGYN told DailyMail.com that Ohio’s new proposed legislation that would require doctors to attempt to implant an ectopic pregnancy into a woman’s uterus is unsafe and not possible. Pictured: Women protest Ohio’s abortion bill in December 2018
‘Politicians are legislating medical care [and] it’s disturbing,’ Dr Mark Werner, an OBGYN at Beaumont Hospital in West Bloomfield, Missouri, told DailyMail.com.
‘This is really not where they should be…They’re going to hurt a lot of people to try to [save] one possible pregnancy.’
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.
The fallopian tubes carry eggs out of the ovaries and into the uterus. If an egg gets stuck in them, it won’t develop into a baby.
About one in every 50 pregnancies in the US is an ectopic pregnancy, according to the March of Dimes, a nonprofit that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.
Dr Werner explained that ectopic pregnancies are not viable.
‘Once [an egg] gets stuck in the tube, you have to get it out before the tube ruptures,’ he said.
‘The [fallopian] tube is only so small that in, eight, nine, 10 weeks, the tube will burst open and the patient could hemorrhage and die from bleeding.’
Women do not always experience symptoms but, when a doctor spots an ectopic pregnancy, he or she often prescribes methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug.
The drug stops the egg from developing and the pregnancy tissue is absorbed into the woman’s body.
But, if the pregnancy is undetected, the fallopian tube will eventually rupture or split open, and emergency life-saving surgery is needed to repair or remove the tube.
Ectopic pregnancies were responsible for 867 maternal deaths in the US between 1980 and 2007, according to a 2011 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Werner also said that with the technology we have today, there is no way implantation could occur.
‘I’m just trying to think how that would even work out. Right now, it’s impossible,’ he said.
‘It’s silly to do it now, it’s like doing [medical] experiments on people.’
He added that, even if there was such a procedure to reinsert an ectopic pregnancy, it could be dangerous for the mother.
‘Reintroducing tissue in the the uterus, could result in an infection,’ Dr Werner said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has also staunchly stated that it is impossible to reimplant the pregnancy in the uterus.
‘There is no procedure to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy,’ Dr Chris Zahn, vice president of practice activities at the ACOG told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘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.’