LITTLE ROCK - A House panel has advanced legislation that would ban most abortions in Arkansas if a fetal heartbeat is detected 12 weeks into a pregnancy. 
 
 The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Thursday endorsed by a voice vote the reworked version of the "heartbeat" abortion ban, sending it to the full House for consideration. The measure would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected after 12 weeks using an abdominal ultrasound. 
 
 An earlier version of the bill approved by the Senate would have banned abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy and opponents said the only way to detect a heartbeat at that point is through a vaginal probe. 
 
 Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe said earlier Thursday he still believes the bill is unconstitutional. 
 
 (Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.) 

 LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Senate has passed a bill to ban insurers participating in an exchange created under the federal health care law from covering abortions. 
 
 The Senate voted 25-9 Thursday for the bill to ban abortion coverage in the exchange, with exemptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. The House has already passed the bill and it now goes to Gov. Mike Beebe. 
 
 The bill allows abortion coverage through supplemental policies — an option that opponents say is not currently available in Arkansas. Opponents say the measure would prevent women from purchasing with their own money insurance coverage in the exchange that would cover abortions. 
 
 The bill is one of several new abortion restrictions that Arkansas lawmakers are considering. 
 
 Beebe says he will sign the bill into law. He said after the vote that he believes the measure merely restates existing law on whether public money can be used for abortions. 
 
 (Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.) 

 Here we go again. 
 
 Republicans in Michigan are pushing a bill that would essentially require all women seeking an abortion to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound first. 
 
 The bill would mandate the “performance of a diagnostic ultrasound examination of the fetus at least two hours before an abortion is performed.” The bill’s authors argue that the invasive procedure actually “protects the health of the woman.” 
 
 Michigan House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel told MSNBC.com in a statement that mandating transvaginal ultrasounds is an “unnecessary and unwarranted intrusion into the health decisions of women. This is yet another example of the Republican obsession with overregulating people’s private lives.” 
 
 Now, while the bill doesn’t explicitly say “transvaginal”ultrasound, an aide to Republican state Rep. Joel Johnson—who introduced the legislation—has previously confirmed that the procedure would be required. 
 
 This is hardly the first time state GOP lawmakers have pushed such a bill. In Texas, women must undergo a sonogram and hear a physician’s verbal description of what they are seeing (and ask the patient if she wants to hear a heartbeat) before an abortion is performed. 
 
 Tennessee lawmakers are also considering a bill that would require an ultrasound at least 24 hours before an abortion. 
 
 Such legislation did not go over well in Virginia last year, as Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell ultimately caved to criticism by squashing part of a bill that would have required transvaginal ultrasounds. 
 
 Many political observers had figured the GOP learned its lesson about being super-aggressive with abortion rhetoric and policy in the wake of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock’s disastrous losses in 2012. But old habits, it seems, die hard. 
 
 UPDATE, 4:47 p.m.: Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger says the House will not approve legislation mandating transvaginal ultrasounds. “While I want to be sure women have access to the best technology available, I have absolutely no interst in forcing a woman to have a transvaginal ultrasound,” the Republican said in a statement. “This House of Representatives will not pass a bill mandating transvaginal ultrasounds.” 

 Desperate to court the women voters who helped send Mitt Romney to defeat, Republican leaders in Washington want their party to stop talking about abortion. But their colleagues in states across the country have other plans. 
 
 Lawmakers in at least five states have pushed new legislation to restrict access to abortion in just the last few days. A bill in Alabama would tighten regulations on abortion clinics to the extent that some say they'd have to close. A proposal in Arkansas would ban insurance companies active in a new state insurance exchange from covering abortions. A bill in Tennessee would require an ultrasound 24 hours before an abortion. And Republicans in Michigan want to require women to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion. 
 
 Just months after incendiary comments about rape by Republican candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock gave fodder to Democratic claims that the GOP was waging a "war on women," none of these local measures have yet to stir the same kind of national outrage. But taken together, they threaten to divert the party from the kind of focus on kitchen table issues that many Republicans believe is essential to rebounding from the thumping they took at the polls in November. 
 
 "Every time the Republicans seem to take up one of these social issues, it's another notch that puts them on the extreme end of the belt," said Jef Pollock, a prominent Democratic strategist active in House races across the country. "It's not going to damage any Republican in deep-red Alabama, but from a branding standpoint it's a fundamental problem that Republicans have in national elections." 
 
 The Republicans' gender gap — Romney lost women by 11 points — was one of the many reasons Romney came up short in November, and it remains a top GOP concern. Publicly, many Republicans say the local initiatives won't damage them nationally. But many privately concede that the abortion focus threatens to damage their national brand and sink them in some hard-fought races as they try to keep control of the House in 2014. A deeply-divisive agenda pursued by New Hampshire's GOP-controlled legislature, for example, helped doom both the state's Republican congressmen to defeat last year. 
 
 "Yes, it can muddy the message the national party is trying to develop," said Brock McCleary, a former top strategist for House Republicans. "But I question whether the reach of any of these measures impacts the way the party is perceived nationally." 
 
 The transvaginal ultrasound bill in Michigan, similar to one in Virginia that caused a backlash last year before it was tabled, could prove the most potent weapon for pro-choice groups seeking to elevate the issue to the detriment of Republicans. Michigan, though currently controlled by Republicans, is a largely Democratic state that President Obama easily won last year. 
 
 But pro-choice constituencies are promising to highlight every anti-abortion measure that Republicans muster, no matter where it comes from. 
 
 "All the pro-choice groups are paying close attention and amplifying every outrageous example," said Beth Shipp, political director for the group NARAL Pro-Choice America. "We have to keep reminding Americans of these anti-choice politicians." 
 
 dhirschhorn@nydailynews.com
– Republican lawmakers around the country are bringing abortion rights back into the spotlight—much to the chagrin of the party's leaders in Washington, who think the issue was part of the reason Romney lost among women by 11 points. Just this week, Republicans in at least four states introduced legislation restricting abortion, the New York Daily News reports. In Michigan, for instance, 23 Republicans this week co-sponsored a version of the transvaginal ultrasound bill that proved so divisive in Virginia. Last night Michigan's Republican House speaker said he wouldn't pass the bill, MSNBC reports. "I have absolutely no interest in forcing women to have a transvaginal ultrasound," he said. But Michigan is hardly alone. A bill in Tennessee would require women to undergo a standard ultrasound at least 24 hours before an abortion; another in Alabama could regulate its remaining clinics out of business; and a pair in Arkansas would forbid some insurance coverage for abortions and ban them entirely after 12 weeks. Publicly, DC Republicans say these state efforts won't damage the national brand. But "it can muddy the message the national party is trying to develop," one former House GOP strategist admits.