US opponents of Women's Reproductive Rights are planning anti-abortion legislation that calls on doctors to perform a medical impossibility - and it's the second time doctors have had to tell them so.

Republicans in the state legislature of Ohio are proposing that doctors be required to "reimplant an ectopic pregnancy", or face charges of "abortion murder".  The problem is, there is no such medical procedure to do this - it's impossible.

An ectopic pregnancy is when an embryo implants on the woman's fallopian tube rather than her uterus.  This renders the pregnancy unviable, and is a genuine threat to the woman's life if the embryonic tissue grows unchecked.

"I don’t believe I'm typing this again but, that's impossible," tweeted Ohio obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. David Hackney.  "We'll all be going to jail."

The Republicans' Ohio House Bill 413 is 700 pages of political jibberish born in the fever swamps of anti-woman sentiment in the American right.  It also bans abortion outright, specifying life sentences for doctors and nurses and patients who might be as young as 13 years old.  And it defines a fertilized egg as an "unborn child".  It's backed by only 21 members of Ohio's 99-member lower house of the legislature, but this is the second time the group has introduced it.  

When this first came up in May, doctors and researchers were forced to stress that reimplanting a fertilized egg or embryo is "pure science fiction". Do you wish to get a job in Nigeria? Then apply for nigeria police recruitment and wait patiently for the shortlist

"There is no procedure to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy," said Dr. Chris Zahn of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. 

"It is not possible to move an ectopic pregnancy from a fallopian tube, or anywhere else it might have implanted, to the uterus," Zahn added.  "Reimplantation is not physiologically possible.  Women with ectopic pregnancies are at risk for catastrophic hemorrhage and death in the setting of an ectopic pregnancy, and treating the ectopic pregnancy can certainly save a mom's life."