The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run.
DeSantis is expected to sign the bill. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.
A six-week ban would hand DeSantis a key political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential bid based on his national brand as a conservative champion.
The policy would also have broader implications for abortion access throughout the South in the wake of last year’s US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and leave decisions about abortion access to the states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, while Georgia bans the procedure after heart activity can be detected, which is around six weeks.
“We have an opportunity to lead the national debate on the importance of protecting life and giving every child the opportunity to be born and find their purpose,” said Republican Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka.
Democrats and abortion rights groups have criticized the Florida proposal as extreme.
“This ban would prevent 4 million women of reproductive age in Florida from accessing abortion services after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in a statement issued after Thursday’s vote. “This ban would also affect the nearly 15 million women of reproductive age who live in states that ban abortion throughout the South, many of whom previously relied on traveling to Florida as an option to access care.”
The bill contains some exceptions, including to save the life of the woman. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be allowed up to 15 weeks into the pregnancy, as long as the woman has documentation such as a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has called the provisions on rape and incest sensible.
Medications used in medically induced abortions, which make up the majority of those provided nationally, can only be dispensed in person or by a physician under Florida law. Furthermore, nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone is being challenged in court.
Florida’s six-week ban would take effect only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge before the conservative-controlled state Supreme Court.
“I can’t think of any bill that provides more protection for more people who are more vulnerable than this legislation,” said Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, who said the bill’s exceptions and six-week timeframe represented a compromise. .
The abortion ban is popular with some religious conservatives who are part of the Republican Party’s voter base, but the issue has motivated many others to vote Democratic. Republicans in recent weeks and months have suffered losses in elections focused on abortion access in states like Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“Have we not learned anything?” Fentrice Driskell, Democratic House Minority Leader, on recent elections in other states. “Are we not listening to our constituents and the people of Florida and what they are asking for?”
DeSantis, who is often placed on the front lines of culture war issues, has said he supports the six-week ban but has been unusually tepid on the bill. He has often said, “We welcome pro-life legislation” when asked about the policy.
DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential bid after session adjourns in May, with his possible run for the White House in part buoyed by the conservative policies approved by the overwhelming Republican majority in the House of Representatives this year.
Democrats, powerless at any level of state government, have mostly resorted to delaying tactics and protests to oppose the bill, which easily passed both chambers with mostly partisan votes. The Senate approved it last week and the House did so on Thursday.
A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party have been arrested and charged with trespassing during a protest in Tallahassee against the six-week ban. In a last-ditch move to delay passage of the bill in the House on Thursday, Democrats filed dozens of amendments to the proposal, all of which were rejected by Republicans.
“Women’s health and their personal right to choose are being stolen,” said Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson, D-May. “So I ask: is Florida really a free state?”
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