Just hours after Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a controversial anti-abortion bill into law, Republicans in the state legislature introduced yet another bill intended to prevent a woman from obtaining an abortion.

The new legislation would ban most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

“A person may not knowingly perform or induce or attempt to perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of the unborn child if it has been determined, in accordance with Section 171.103, that the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat,” the bill states.

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The bill was introduced to the Texas House by state Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford). King was a co-author of the bill signed into law on Thursday, which could close down all but five abortion clinics in the state.

“Our founding fathers realized that ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’ were among the most essential of the unalienable rights bestowed upon us by our Creator,” King wrote last week. “Over the past several weeks a debate has been raging in Austin over the first and greatest of these enumerated rights: life.”

Perry has vowed to work towards enacting anti-abortion laws “until the day abortion is nothing more than a tragic footnote in our nation’s history.”

[Anti-abortion protester photo via Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com]