Ohio House speaker reviews strict abortion bill

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s House speaker says he has some concerns over the possible medical implications of a bill that would give the state the strictest abortion limit in the nation.

The measure would ban the procedure at the first detectable fetal heartbeat. It narrowly passed a state House committee on a 12-11 vote last week.

Speaker William Batchelder told reporters today that he wonders what would happen medically if the measure is enacted, but adds that he doesn’t know enough to say whether there’d be problems. The Republican says he plans to further review the issue before forming an opinion.

He says there may be lawmakers who had previously supported the bill that might not now, and he plans see where his fellow GOP members stood on the measure.