(CNN) As the Georgia "heartbeat" bill awaits Governor Brian Kemp's signature, it joins legislation in many states -- at many stages of the process -- that intend to ban abortions when doctors can detect a heartbeat.

Currently in Georgia, women are allowed to undergo abortion procedures up to their 20th week of pregnancy, but the pending bills would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into the pregnancy.

Many women don't know they are pregnant at that point.

Proponents, like the Georgia bill's author Republican state Rep. Ed Setzler, say abortion is a "barbaric procedure" and that many other options exist for women.

Critics, like the American Civil Liberties Union, say Georgia's legislation "would ban safe, legal abortion and criminalize the most intimate decision women and couples make."