Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine, signed the “heartbeat bill” in the afternoon on Thursday, April 12th. Governor DeWine signed the bill only one day after it passed through the Ohio General Assembly, which is dominated by Republicans. Ohio has become the 6th state to pass a bill that prevents abortion as soon as a heartbeat is detected in the fetus.

The “Human Rights Protection Act”(a.k.a the heartbeat bill), will ban abortions for women as early as 5 weeks into the pregnancy. This will basically outlaw all abortions, because most women do not know that they are pregnant until after 6 weeks. The bill does give an exception for an abortion in order to save the woman’s life, but not for women who have been raped or have been involved in incest.

This bill will go into effect in 90 days, unless a federal judge rules that the law is unconstitutional. This has happened in Kentucky and Iowa, where federal judges blocked abortion bills from becoming law.

After the signing of bill, the ACLU of Ohio claimed that they will sue in order to stop the law. The ACLU plans to represent many other groups in their legal battle, such as Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Southwest Ohio, Pre-Term Cleveland, and the Women’s Med Center of Dayton.

Anti-abortion groups encourage the law suit. They are hoping that the case will go to the Supreme Court, where it could lead to a decision that would overturn the holding in Roe v. Wade (which made abortions legal in the United States).

When Lakewood resident, Ella Calleri, heard about the signing she said, “I really hope that a federal judge will declare this bill unconstitutional.”