TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday authorized a ban on abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, a proposal supported by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an anticipated presidential run.
DeSantis is anticipated to signal the invoice into legislation. Florida at the moment prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.
A six-week ban would give DeSantis a key political victory amongst Republican main voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy constructed on his nationwide model as a conservative normal bearer.
The coverage would even have wider implications for abortion entry all through the South within the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s determination final yr overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving selections about abortion entry to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion in any respect phases of being pregnant, whereas Georgia forbids the process after cardiac exercise could be detected, which is round six weeks.
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“We now have the chance to steer the nationwide debate concerning the significance of defending life and giving each little one the chance to be born and discover his or her objective,” stated Republican Rep. Jenna Individuals-Mulicka, who carried the invoice within the Home.
Democrats and abortion-rights teams say Florida’s proposal would ban nearly all abortions as a result of many ladies don’t but understand they’re pregnant at six weeks.
The invoice accommodates some exceptions, together with to save lots of the girl’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest could be allowed till 15 weeks of being pregnant, offered a lady has documentation similar to a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has known as the rape and incest provisions smart.
Medication utilized in medication-induced abortions—which make up nearly all of these offered nationally—may very well be disbursed solely in individual or by a doctor beneath the Florida invoice. Individually, nationwide entry to the abortion capsule mifepristone is being challenged in court.
Florida’s six-week ban would take impact provided that the state’s present 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing authorized problem that’s earlier than the state Supreme Courtroom, which is managed by conservatives.
“I can’t consider any invoice that’s going to supply extra protections to extra people who find themselves extra weak than this piece of laws,” stated Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, who stated the invoice’s exceptions and six-week timeframe represented a compromise.
Abortion bans are well-liked amongst some spiritual conservatives who’re a part of the GOP voting base, however the challenge has motivated many others to vote for Democrats. Republicans in latest weeks and months have suffered defeats in elections centered on abortion entry in states similar to Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“Have we realized nothing?” Home Democratic Minority Chief Fentrice Driskell stated of latest elections in different states. “Can we not hearken to our constituents and to the individuals of Florida and what they’re asking for?”
DeSantis, who usually locations himself on the entrance traces of tradition battle points, has stated he backs the six-week ban however has appeared uncharacteristically tepid on the invoice. He has usually stated, “We welcome pro-life laws,” when requested concerning the coverage.
DeSantis is anticipated to announce his presidential candidacy after the session ends in Might, together with his potential White Home run partially buoyed by the conservative insurance policies authorized by the Republican supermajority within the Statehouse this yr.
Democrats, with out energy at any stage of state authorities, have largely turned to stall techniques and protests to oppose the invoice, which simply handed each chambers on largely party-line votes. The Senate authorized it final week, and the Home did so Thursday.
A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Occasion have been arrested and charged with trespassing throughout a protest in Tallahassee towards the six-week ban. In a final ditch transfer to delay the invoice’s passage within the Home on Thursday, Democrats filed dozens of amendments to the proposal, all of which have been rejected by Republicans.
“Girls’s well being and their private proper to decide on is being stolen,” stated Democratic Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson. “So I ask: Is Florida really a free state?”
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