TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday accepted 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 predicted 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 customary bearer.
The coverage would even have wider implications for abortion entry all through the South within the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s determination final 12 months overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving selections about abortion entry to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion in any respect levels of being pregnant, whereas Georgia forbids the process after cardiac exercise could be detected, which is round six weeks.
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“We have now the chance to steer the nationwide debate in regards to the significance of defending life and giving each youngster the chance to be born and discover his or her function,” mentioned 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 incorporates some exceptions, together with to save lots of the lady’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest could be allowed till 15 weeks of being pregnant, offered a girl has documentation resembling a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has referred to as the rape and incest provisions wise.
Medication utilized in medication-induced abortions—which make up nearly all of these offered nationally—could possibly be disbursed solely in particular person or by a doctor beneath the Florida invoice. Individually, nationwide entry to the abortion tablet mifepristone is being challenged in courtroom.
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 Court docket, 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,” mentioned Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, who mentioned 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 problem 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 resembling Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“Have we realized nothing?” Home Democratic Minority Chief Fentrice Driskell mentioned of latest elections in different states. “Can we not hearken to our constituents and to the folks of Florida and what they’re asking for?”
DeSantis, who typically locations himself on the entrance strains of tradition conflict points, has mentioned he backs the six-week ban however has appeared uncharacteristically tepid on the invoice. He has typically mentioned, “We welcome pro-life laws,” when requested in regards to the coverage.
DeSantis is predicted to announce his presidential candidacy after the session ends in Could, together with his potential White Home run partly buoyed by the conservative insurance policies accepted by the Republican supermajority within the Statehouse this 12 months.
Democrats, with out energy at any stage of state authorities, have largely turned to stall ways and protests to oppose the invoice, which simply handed each chambers on largely party-line votes. The Senate accepted it final week, and the Home did so Thursday.
A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Occasion had been arrested and charged with trespassing throughout a protest in Tallahassee in opposition to 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 had been rejected by Republicans.
“Girls’s well being and their private proper to decide on is being stolen,” mentioned Democratic Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson. “So I ask: Is Florida really a free state?”
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