LINCOLN, Neb. -- A group of Nebraska state senators opposing abortion announced their plans to introduce a 'heartbeat' bill Wednesday.

Currently, abortion is legal in the state until 20 weeks after gestation. The new legislation would ban abortions after an ultrasound is able to detect a fetal heartbeat, or approximately six weeks following gestation.

State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston made the announcement in the Capitol. Albrecht proposed a full abortion ban during last year's legislative session, falling two votes shy of passage.

Albrecht said the bill would not bring criminal charges against patients or doctors, though doctors would lose their medical licenses if they performed an abortion after a fetal heartbeat was detected, or if they performed an abortion without the ultrasound.

“Every parent remembers hearing their child’s heartbeat for the first time,” said Albrecht. “A heartbeat is a universal sign of life, and we know that abortion stops a beating heart.” 

The proposal contains exceptions for rape, incest and medical danger to the mother's life.

“When I provide care for a pregnant woman, I am responsible for two patients: the mother and her unborn child,” Dr. Robert Plambeck, a Nebraska physician practicing obstetrics and gynecology, said in support of the bill. “There is nothing in this bill that prevents me or any doctor from providing appropriate and necessary medical care to a pregnant woman or from terminating a pregnancy in the rare and tragic instance when the mother’s life is at stake.”

Planned Parenthood of Nebraska executive director Andi Curry Grubb told Nebraska Examiner that the proposal creates a deadline for abortions that occurs before most people know they are pregnant.

“I think the bottom line, however they’re trying to sugarcoat it, this is an abortion ban, plain and simple,” she said. “They are doing everything they can to keep people from accessing health care.”

State Sen. Megan Hunt, who was one of the leading opponents of Albrecht's proposed legislation last year, called the new proposal "extreme."

"Politicians have no place controlling anyone’s pregnancy decisions," Hunt said. "Let’s trust people to make the decisions that are best for their lives & their bodies."

She argued that the lack of criminal punishment was a calculated decision.

"The reason this bill deals with licensure instead of offering criminal penalties is so it can go through the Health and Human Services Committee instead of Judiciary," Hunt said. "Removing the criminal penalty is also meant to pacify the medical professionals against it."

When asked whether she was hopeful the legislation could pass through the Nebraska Unicameral, Albrecht responded that she is confident there is the support to pass the bill.

“The state of Nebraska is best served when every life counts, when every life, born and unborn, is valued and cherished, said Albrecht. “Let’s start here, in a place where we should all be able to agree: women deserve support, and babies with a beating heart should be protected.”