Mississippi governor signs heartbeat legislation

Phil Bryant, the Republican governor of Mississippi, signed a bill Thursday that largely bans abortions once doctors can detect a trace of a fetal heartbeat with an ultrasound, a milestone that can come as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

Mississippi is only the latest state to press for the strict abortion limit — the sort that already has been passed and then blocked in the courts in states including Kentucky, which approved it earlier this month, and Iowa, where a law passed last year was struck down by a state court in January.

The Ohio Senate has approved its so-called Heartbeat Bill," and House approval is expected by mid-april. Gov. Mike Dewine has said he will sign the legislation.

About nine other states are debating bills to ban abortions once fetal heartbeats are found, a point at which some women and girls are not yet aware that they are pregnant.

Supporters of abortion rights said Thursday that they would sue to block the new Mississippi law, which will take effect in July unless a court intervenes.

While fetal heartbeat proposals are not new, momentum around them has grown significantly during this year’s legislative sessions in Republican-controlled capitals.

The measures clash with Supreme Court decisions that have recognized a woman’s right to an abortion until a fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks into pregnancy. And opponents of abortion say that is part of the intent: to land a new case before the current Supreme Court in hopes of setting sharper limits or even an outright ban.

Mississippi has a single abortion clinic.