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First they came for our health insurance, and now they're coming for our doctors. Here's Rewire:

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on Thursday introduced the first federal “heartbeat bill” modeled on a failed Ohio attempt to end legal abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy—before many people know they’re pregnant.

“Heartbeat bills” amount to total abortion bans. They have been declared unconstitutional in federal court.

King’s office confirmed that HR 490 marked the first introduction of a so-called heartbeat bill in the U.S. Congress. Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) introduced a forced ultrasound bill in 2011, but her measure did not ban abortion—King’s stated goal.

A King press release called Roe v. Wade unconstitutional, adding that under HR 490, “if a heartbeat is detected, the baby is protected.”

His spokesperson provided Rewire with legislative text specifying that an abortion provider “who knowingly performs an abortion and thereby kills a human fetus” without determining a heartbeat, informing the patient of a heartbeat, or proceeding regardless of a heartbeat would face fines and up to five years in prison. The bill includes limited exceptions for the physical health of the pregnant person but not for “psychological or emotional conditions.”

It gets worse:

Presumably, the same U.S. House of Representatives panel that props up conservative and often racially biased anti-abortion myths may hear testimony on King’s legislation. During a Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice hearing in 2016, King interrogated a reproductive justice advocate over whether killing “partially delivered” puppies would amount to a crime in an apparent attempt to draw a parallel between puppies and Black babies.

It's important to point out here that the bill this jackass is introducing is copycat legislation based on an Ohio law that Governor John Kasich vetoed because it wouldn't have made it through the courts if it was challenged. Because, lest we forget, the right to an abortion is constitutionally derived and protected. Also key here is the right's tired, racist positioning of abortion as a threat to people of color, a propagandistic, self-serving feigning of interest in racial justice.

On the heels of Senate Republicans' nocturnal vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, this bill isn't just counter-productive nonsense: It's an insult, it's a waste of time, and it's completely on-brand for the political party who's succeeded in making "People shouldn't be able to go to the doctor" gospel.

A small piece of good news here is Politico's reporting on a handful of Republican governors who want to maintain the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansions in their states, and are fighting their DC counterparts' decision to repeal the legislation that made healthcare coverage unprecedentedly available to their constituents. John Kasich is one of these governors. It feels bad and wrong to pin my hopes on him, but I'm doing it anyway.