President-elect Donald Trump's imminent ascent to the White House, alongside an overwhelming Republican victory in both houses of Congress, has encouraged right-wing calls to impose a pro-life approach to abortion. Ohio and New Jersey have so far been the first states to pass legislative proposals to restrict abortion access to women.
Abortion rights in Ohio faces a chilling setback as Gov. John Kasich signed a bill forbidding abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, The Columbus Dispatch has reported. Said bill is a milder version of the so-called Heartbeat Bill, which would have forbidden women to get abortions upon the detection of fetal heartbeat.
Nonetheless, the 20-week ban still doesn't include rape and incest as exceptions. State Rep. Greta Johnson (D-Akron) voted to include an amendment favoring those exceptions, but Rep. Ron Hood (R-Ashville) shot down such a proposal, saying that children conceived due to assaults shouldn't bear the blame.
A similar measure in New Jersey, dubbed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, gained greater traction from its introduction back in April due to Trump's victory. The bill cites its premise on the highly-disputed argument that fetuses older than 20 weeks can feel pain, New Jersey On-Line has reported.
State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Morris), one of the bill's proponents, expressed his confidence over its passage. "Make no mistake, when a legislator gets up or Donald Trump gets up and starts talking about a child have a right to exist and not feel pain, that empowers all of us," the legislator said.
Other states - at least 17 of them, have their own 20-week ban proposals either lined up or approved by their respective state legislatures, the Memphis Daily News has reported. The likes of South Dakota and South Carolina have such bans signed into law in March and June, respectively. In states like Arizona and Idaho, however, federal courts have banned the enforcement of such proposals.
Dissenters have argued that the 20-week ban - the acceptance of which is currently divisive, would serve as a disadvantage to women who may not even have any idea that they're pregnant. Thus, victims of rape and incest are seen to suffer the most under such proposals.
Currently, the US generally recognizes abortion rights under the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling issued back in 1973. The ruling allows states to restrict abortion access, subject to findings of viability - when the fetus can survive fairly when taken out of the uterus. However, the ruling didn't legally define viability, only estimating that it can run between 24-28 weeks into a pregnancy.
