COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Going beyond the incremental but increasingly aggressive restrictions dominating anti-abortion activists at the Statehouse in recent years, a new bill would attempt to ban abortion outright in Ohio.

A new bill, sponsored by state Reps. Candice Keller and Ron Hood, both Republicans, also would declare unborn fetuses as people entitled to full legal protection.

This would mean that any doctors who perform abortions in Ohio would be charged with murder, according to a Thursday news release from the Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio. The group is a not affiliated with Ohio Right to Life, the state’s most prominent anti-abortion group.

The bill would include provisions to protect doctors who perform life-saving procedures and treatments on pregnant women that result intentionally in the termination of the pregnancy, the news release said.

“The time for regulating evil and compromise is over," Keller said in a written statement. "The time has come to abolish abortion in its entirety and recognize that each individual has the inviolable and inalienable Right to Life. Only respect for life can be the foundation of a free society that supports peace, justice and integrity.”

In a statement, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said the proposed legislation, like other abortion bans and restrictions, would strip Ohioans of their reproductive freedoms.

“These politicians want a total ban on abortion, to classify any abortion as murder. They want prosecutors to charge people who provide or receive abortion care with aggravated murder, which carries the death penalty,” she said. “They would also remove protections for pregnant people who experience issues during pregnancy, and place individuals experiencing a miscarriage at risk of criminal prosecution. If all of that weren’t bad enough, these politicians don’t care that these kinds of bans could also ban some contraceptives and fertility treatments. Ohioans won’t surrender their bodily autonomy to these extremists.”

Keller was not immediately available for additional comment.

The bill would require approval from the full Ohio House and Senate, which are both Republican controlled, as well as Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature to become law. If it became law, it would directly oppose the national right to abortion guaranteed by the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade and would likely be challenged in court.

In April, DeWine, a Republican, signed the “Heartbeat” bill, which would outlaw abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. That could be as soon as six weeks after conception, before many women know they are pregnant, meaning the law could function as a near-total ban on abortion.

A federal judge blocked the Heartbeat bill from taking effect while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is heard. Lawmakers who backed the bill are hoping a legal challenge will eventually make to the U.S. Supreme Court, requiring the court to rule broadly on the practice of abortion.

The new total-ban legislation has 19 co-sponsors, all Republican. They are: Reps. Niraj Antani, Tom Brinkman, John Becker, Bill Dean, Jena Powell, Mark Romanchuk, Paul Zeltwanger, Darrell Kick, Todd Smith, Tracy Richardson, Nino Vitale, Jon Cross, Craig Riedel, Susan Manchester, Tim Ginter, Derek Merrin, Phil Plummer, Kris Jordan and Riordan McClain.

A copy of the proposed legislation was not immediately available.