A proposed legislation in Missouri and Georgia which is intended to spare taxpayers from being forced to pay for women who had more children than they could afford has been proposed.

Ralph Hudgens, a Republican state senator in Georgia, has proposed legislation that would allow no more than two embryos to be implanted at any one time in a woman under 40 and for women over 40 the limit would be three embryos on account for the increased difficulty of getting pregnant.

The debate on limiting the number of embryos was sparked off due to Nadya Suleman who already had six children before giving birth to octuplets in Bellflower, Calif., on January 26. Suleman lives in her mothers three bedroom house and provides for her family from disability income and food stamps.

"It's unforgivable," said Hudgens. "This woman already has six children. She's unemployed, and she's going and having 14 children on the backs of the taxpayers of the state of California." Hudgens was approached by the Georgia Right to Life group and he agreed to sponsor the bill which comes up for a hearing Thursday before the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee.

In Missouri, a bill seeks to enact guidelines from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine which would include the recommended number of embryos needed for a successful pregnancy which would be based on a woman's age and prognosis. Rob Schaaf, a Missouri state representative and family doctor who sponsored the bill said, "It's just not a good thing to be having that many multiple births if you can avoid it. I'm just simply saying keep the risk down."

Supporters of the proposed bill feel the measure is a much needed one to control unethical fertility clinics more concerned with profits as well as spare taxpayers from being forced to pay for women who had more children than they could afford. Critics feel the measure would make it harder for some women to even have one child while infertility doctors feel that decisions on how many embryos to transfer should be left up to medical experts familiar with a patient's individual circumstances.

"What they are proposing is a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach," said Dr. Andrew Toledo, medical director of the Atlanta-based Reproductive Biology Associates. "Not every couple and not every patient is the same."

Bernita Malloy, a federal prosecutor in Atlanta said it took 25 eggs and three in-vitro cycles for her to conceive one child. "They are legislating based on a knee-jerk reaction," Malloy said. "What they don't get is every embryo doesn't make a baby. This bill is devastating."

Limiting a woman's right to procreate raises constitutional concerns feel legal experts. "I think it raises huge legal questions," said Ruth Claiborne, an Atlanta lawyer specializing in family law and infertility issues. "There are individual legal interests in procreation, and I think you would almost certainly see this challenged (in the courts)."

Although the American Society for Reproductive Medicine guidelines are not binding, doctors do answer to individual state licensing boards. David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the conservative Family Research Center said, "This is an unregulated industry that is driven by money."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 20 % of clinics nationwide follow the guidelines. For women under 35, the reports show that just 83 of 426 clinics followed the guidance calling for no more than two embryos.