Legislation introduced in the Michigan House last week would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

House Bill 4664, sponsored by Republican Rep. Steve Johnson of Wayland, would make it a felony for doctors to perform abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can typically be found around six weeks of pregnancy.

Punishment for performing one after that point would be a felony with 2-4 years imprisonment, and 6-15 years if the abortion procedure caused the pregnant person’s death. The person getting the abortion would not be charged.

“A heartbeat is a universal indicator of life,” Johnson said in a statement. “It’s time we be a voice for the voiceless, and uphold our constitutional duty to protect and defend the sanctity of human life.”

The language mirrors a proposal from the Michigan Heartbeat Coalition, a group that submitted paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office Tuesday to kick off a ballot petition drive last week.

The group’s president Corey Shankleton said at the time the petition is “designed to be the arrow in the heart” of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows abortions to be performed in the United States.

Johnson’s legislation was referred to the House Families, Children and Seniors Committee. To pass, the bill would have to clear the House and Senate and be signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer has already vowed to fight the heartbeat ballot drive and other anti-abortion efforts.

“Michigan is a state that wants access for women to healthcare. This is a procedure that is safe, that has saved women’s lives and protected our reproductivity,” Whitmer told reporters last week after an event promoting equal pay for women.

“And for government and a bunch of men in government, frankly, to get between a woman and her provider is downright dangerous, especially when most of them can’t even spell endometriosis, much less tell you what it means," she continued.

The heartbeat effort is separate from a proposal to ban dilation and evacuation, or D&E, abortions in the state. Republicans in the House and Senate each passed their own versions of legislation to define the procedure as “dismemberment abortion" and make it a felony.

Right to Life of Michigan filed paperwork to start a statewide ballot petition drive to ban the D&E procedure as a means of bypassing the governor’s expected veto.

If they met the required signature threshold under the legislative initiative process, Whitmer would not have to sign the measure. Instead, the measure would become law immediately if approved by both chambers of the legislature.