A handfull of abortion-related bills passed the Georgia State Senate Thursday. The measures require doctors to offer women seeking the procedure a look at an image of the fetus and give amnesty to pharmacists who don’t want to give out abortion pills they say go against their beliefs.

The Columbus Ledger-Inquirer has more:

A third bill would create a murder charge any time a fetus is destroyed in an attack on a pregnant woman.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act expands Georgia’s current law, which says a fetus must have a chance to stay alive outside the womb for its destruction to be considered a murder. The new bill would call for a murder charge at any point in the pregnancy.

Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, said the bill is similar to federal law passed in the wake of the highly publicized 2002 death of Laci Peterson, whose husband was convicted of murdering both her and their unborn son.

“If both of them are killed, then you’re actually killing two people - the mother and the baby,” Unterman said.

That measure passed on a 37-15 vote, with some critics arguing the bill was an abortion-related effort to expand legal protection of fetuses.

“It’s ironic that what you say does not mirror what you do,” said Sen. Regina Thomas, D-Savannah.

The pharmacist bill would allow any pharmacist who files an objection to abortions in writing to refuse to fill a prescription for a drug that terminates pregnancy.

The bill’s scope is limited, since drugs like RU-486 - which induces abortions - may only be handed out by doctors. It would not impact emergency contraceptives, such as the so-called “morning after pill.”

The bill, by Sen. Jim Whitehead, R-Evans, passed 35-15, after senators voted down an amendment by Sen. Steen Miles, D-Decatur, that would have given pharmacists a similar exemption if they object to giving out “sexually enhancing drugs” like Viagra.

A third bill, by Sen. Nancy Schaefer, R-Turnerville, would require doctor who perform abortions to make a sonogram image of the fetus and offer to show the image to the woman seeking the procedure.

Schaefer said she thinks many women who see the sonogram will reconsider their decision to have abortions.

“This sonogram will save lives,” she said of the plan, which passed 35-17.

Senate Democrats, even those who supported some of the measures, complained about the priorities of majority Republicans in the chamber.

“We need to focus on what’s important,” said Sen. George Hooks, D-Americus. “Kids who live on dirt roads can’t get to school when it rains, we’re rock-bottom in the nation in education and we’re up here hollering about abortion.”