Chrissie Thompson

COLUMBUS – The controversial anti-abortion "Heartbeat Bill" failed to pass the Ohio House Wednesday, killing an effort that has divided Republicans for two consecutive lame-duck sessions.

The bill died on a 47-40 vote, failing to receive a majority in the 98-member House. Eleven of the House's 59 Republicans voted against the bill, while one, Akron-area Rep. Marilyn Slaby, abstained from voting.

The legislation would have banned abortions after the detection of the first fetal heartbeat, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. But many Republicans said the bill wouldn't stand up in court, jeopardizing other anti-abortion legislation. Heartbeat Bill supporters said they wanted to see whether a legal battle over the bill could be a tool to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Drama around the bill's passage had swirled in the House chambers for two days. Frustrated the Heartbeat Bill had not been offered for a vote on the House floor, Geauga County Rep. Matt Lynch on Tuesday decided to take matters into his own hands, trying to add the legislation to another bill on infant mortality.

Republican leadership foiled that attempt, leading the House in voting to put off consideration of the infant mortality bill. That set up a standoff within the party. Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, accused Lynch of wanting to "kill babies."

"We believe the Heartbeat Bill moves the cause of anti-abortion back, not forward," he said.

Lynch accused Republicans of wanting to avoid stating their position on a controversial bill. House Speaker Bill Batchelder appeared to confirm that reasoning, saying many House Republicans had indicated they didn't want to vote on the bill.

After Lynch's move Tuesday, House GOP leaders agreed to allow a vote on the bill. Even then, Faber said the measure would be doomed in the Ohio Senate.

So Lynch sought again Wednesday to add the anti-abortion language to Clearcreek Township Sen. Shannon Jones' infant mortality bill. He hoped the Senate would consider agreeing to the Heartbeat Bill to pass Jones' bill, although Faber said the chamber would kill the bill if it contained the anti-abortion legislation.

When Lynch rose to offer the amendment, Batchelder ignored him, stymieing Lynch's effort.

"The leadership doesn't want the Heartbeat Bill," Lynch told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "If they don't want something, they'll bend the rules, and they won't recognize you."

The Heartbeat Bill passed the House in 2011, only to die at the hands of then-Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond.

Courts have overturned similar legislation in other states, but proponents of the Heartbeat Bill welcome lawsuits, viewing them as a vehicle to get abortion in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Instead of abortion stopping a beating heart, a beating heart should stop abortion," Rep. Christina Hagan, R-Alliance, who sponsored the latest version of the bill.

The bill's early ban on abortion would have prohibited the procedure even after diagnoses of fatal fetal anomalies, such anencephaly, in which the fetus develops without a complete skull.

"This legislation would require that woman to carry the baby to full term and deliver a stillborn baby," said Rep. John Patrick Carney, D-Columbus. "Obstetricians and gynecologists, the ones who deliver babies in this state ... don't need the Legislature deciding how they practice medicine."