Conservative Ohio lawmakers attempted to amend a bill that aims to reduce infant mortality with an unrelated measure that would ban abortions at six weeks. Why? Because the abortion measure is so extreme that it's the only way several Republicans can foist the unpopular measure on their colleagues.
From ThinkProgress:
On Tuesday afternoon, State Rep. Matt Lynch (R) offered an amendment to SB 276 that has the exact same language as the six-week abortion ban that a handful of Republicans have been trying to advance in the current lame duck session. Six other lawmakers signaled their support for the amended version of the bill.
Rep. Lynch's move didn't win him any friends. His colleagues blocked a vote on the larger bill so they wouldn't risk passing what's known as the "heartbeat bill," which makes any abortion illegal as soon as a fetus has a heartbeat. Banning abortions at six weeks trims about 17 weeks off the window in which women can legally have abortions under Roe v. Wade. That's
one of the reasons that even anti-choice activists have hesitated to support such bills.
Ohio was the first state to introduce a so-called “heartbeat ban” back in 2011. Since then, other states like Michigan, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi have attempted to follow suit. But these measures are so radical that they often fail to garner enough support even among anti-choice Republicans, some of whom argue it’s better to advance an incremental strategy to limit access to abortion that won’t trigger immediate court challenges.
Republicans control the House, Senate, and governor's office in Ohio. Some Democrats have promised to pull their support for the infant mortality bill unless the heartbeat measure is removed.
Ohio Sen. Charleta Tavares (D), one of the co-sponsors of SB 276, plans to remove her name from the legislation if it moves forward with the heartbeat bill amendment intact.
