The Republican Party is full of human horribles and Christian blockheads.

From its top national leadership to its most insignificant local voter.

Georgia Governor Signs ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Abortion Law

Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation on Tuesday, effectively banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when doctors can usually start detecting a fetal heartbeat.

Georgia is the fourth state to enact a so-called fetal heartbeat law this year.

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Governors in Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio signed bills similar to Georgia’s this year. 

They have not gone unchallenged: A federal judge is expected to hear a challenge to the Mississippi law later this month, and a judge in Kentucky blocked the law there.

Similar measures in Iowa and North Dakota have been found unconstitutional.

Lawmakers in South Carolina and Tennessee have pressed for fetal heartbeat bills of their own, and in Arkansas, the state government narrowed the time frame in which women can have abortions.

Alabama is considering a different tack. Under a bill approved by the State House of Representatives last month, doctors would face up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion in most instances.

Alabama Senate Set to Take Up Bill Effectively Banning Abortion

The Alabama Senate is scheduled to take up abortion legislation on Tuesday that would essentially ban the procedure outright.

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The proposal is among the most aggressive efforts in decades around the country to curb abortion. Doctors who perform the procedure could be charged with a felony and face up to 99 years in prison.

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Other state measures to restrict abortion rights have advanced in the South and the Midwest this year and invited legal fights. 

Already, the governors of Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have signed fetal heartbeat bills. 

And Arkansas moved up the cutoff point for legal abortions to 18 weeks of pregnancy, from 20 before.

The Alabama measure, though, goes farther. 

In addition to the potential 99-year sentence for performing abortions, doctors face the threat of a 10-year term for attempting to perform one.

The possible problems of a new Georgia law

It's a fetal heartbeat law that forbids abortion as early as six weeks.

The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, gives a 6-week-old fetus the legal status of a human being. 

One definition of second-degree murder in Georgia includes cruelty to children during which “he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.” 

This raises the question of whether a woman who miscarries because of what is perceived to be her conduct could be held liable for that conduct.

“This suggests that women who ‘cause the death’ of a fetus, with or without malice, could be charged with second-degree murder,” said Eric Segall, a law professor at Georgia State University, and a supporter of abortion rights.

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[T]he new law says doctors who perform abortions will be prosecuted, and that could still have an impact on women who miscarry.

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It would be helpful, of course, if legislators and judges and prosecutors understood the basics of miscarriage. Early pregnancy loss is not uncommon. 

It occurs in about 10 percent of recognized pregnancies. Four out of five cases occur in the first trimester. 

Many women miscarry before they know they’re pregnant.

About half of miscarriages are because of abnormalities in the fetal chromosomes. 

These defects are usually incompatible with life, and spontaneous abortions occur. 

The chance of an early pregnancy loss rises with age. 

While it is less common in younger women, about 80 percent of pregnancies in 45-year-old women can end this way.

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A bigger concern is that a fear of becoming part of an investigation may cause women to avoid medical care. 

Women who are bleeding or are heading toward septic shock may not come to the emergency room or doctor’s office. 

They could die. 

This would only increase America’s maternal mortality rate, which is already much higher than that of most other advanced nations.

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John Becker, a state representative in Ohio, recently sponsored a bill that would also change how pregnant women with unsustainable pregnancies are treated. 

He suggested that ectopic pregnancies, which are not viable, should in part be handled by “removing the embryo from the fallopian tube and then reinserting it in the uterus so that’s defined as not an abortion.”

This procedure is not possible. 

It’s not clear that those who are writing many of these bills understand how pregnancy works.