The Missouri House passed a bill on Friday banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, making it the latest US state to pass restrictions on ending a pregnancy. The bill, overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-led legislature and expected to be signed by the Midwestern state’s Republican governor, would ban abortions from about eight weeks of pregnancy. Republican-led legislatures in several US states have recently passed bills restricting abortion access in a bid to eventually challenge the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling legalizing the practice.
