ATLANTA _ A bill that would create one of the strictest abortion laws in the country is headed to the Georgia governor's desk.
The Georgia House narrowly voted 92-78 to approve legislation that would outlaw most abortions once a doctor can detect a "heartbeat" in the womb. It takes 91 votes for a bill to pass in the House.
People in the House gallery could be heard yelling shame shortly after the bill passed.
The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Ed Setzler, a Republican, said the legislation is something that "commonsense Georgians" should be proud of.
"This bill recognizes the fundamental life of the child in the womb is worthy of legal protection and balances that basic right to life with the very different situations women find themselves in in pregnancies," he said.
House Bill 481 would outlaw abortions about six weeks into a pregnancy and before most women know they are pregnant. Current Georgia law allows abortions to be performed until 20 weeks.
The measure passed the Senate last week on a party-line vote.
Georgia is the third state in as many weeks to pass similar legislation. A federal judge blocked Kentucky's version of the law hours after it was signed by that state's governor.
Mississippi's governor last week also signed heartbeat legislation into law. Last year, a court struck down that state's 15-week abortion ban, calling it unconstitutional.
What is a heartbeat at the center of dispute. Setzler and supporters say it should be used to establish when life begins. Doctors who oppose the legislation, however, said what sounds like a heartbeat at six weeks signals the practice motions of developing tissues that could not on their own power a fetus without the mother.
Democrats have vowed to use the vote to defeat Republicans in the 2020 elections.
State Rep. Vernon Jones, a Democrat, said enough Republicans might lose to shift power in the state House.
"If your members vote for this bill in 2020, your party loses," Jones said. "There's going to be a new speaker of the House here. If there's a new speaker, many in your party will lose power, all of you will lose your chairmanships. If you all lose based on this bill, this body is going to change over."
Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign the legislation. He vowed during his 2018 campaign to sign the strictest abortion laws in the country.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia has already said it will file a lawsuit challenging the legislation.
"If Governor Kemp signs this abortion ban bill into law, the ACLU has one message: We will see you in court," said Andrea Young, the group's executive director.
A federal judge in North Carolina on Tuesday ruled that a ban on abortions after 20 weeks is unconstitutional. The North Carolina ruling, however, has no effect in Georgia.
After remaining quiet the past few weeks, Hollywood actors, writers and local businessmen and women have publicly voiced their opposition to the legislation. Several prominent medical groups, including the Medical Association of Georgia _ a doctors lobby _ had also urged lawmakers to defeat the bill.
Under the proposal, women still would be able to get later abortions in cases of rape, incest, if the life of the mother is in danger or in instances of "medical futility," when a fetus would not be able to survive after birth.
Someone who has become pregnant after an incident of rape or incest would have to file a police report to have the abortion performed.
The bill would also allow parents, once a heartbeat is detected, to claim an embryo on their taxes as dependents and count a fetus toward the state's population.
There are currently about 20 lawsuits surrounding abortion _ including several heartbeat laws _ up for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court that could be used to challenge the Roe v. Wade decision. The 1973 ruling established a nationwide right to abortion.
Georgia anti-abortion activists hope the state's heartbeat bill will be the one that overturns the court's ruling.
