MIAMI – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the six-week abortion ban into law after it was passed by the Florida Dwelling of Representatives.
A 6-7 days ban presents DeSantis a crucial political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy built on his nationwide manufacturer as a conservative standard bearer.
The policy will have wider implications for abortion accessibility through the South in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision previous year overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving decisions about abortion entry to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of being pregnant, while Georgia forbids the treatment just after cardiac exercise can be detected, which is all over 6 months.
“We have the possibility to guide the nationwide debate about the great importance of guarding lifestyle and giving just about every boy or girl the possibility to be born and find his or her purpose,” mentioned Republican Rep. Jenna People-Mulicka, who carried the bill in the Property.
Democrats and abortion-legal rights groups say Florida’s law will ban just about all abortions since several ladies do not however understand they’re pregnant at six months.
The bill is made up of some exceptions, together with to conserve the woman’s daily life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be permitted right up until 15 months of being pregnant, supplied a girl has documentation this sort of as a restraining buy or law enforcement report. DeSantis has known as the rape and incest provisions wise.
Medications utilized in medication-induced abortions — which make up the the greater part of those people offered nationally — could be dispensed only in person or by a medical professional less than the Florida invoice. Independently, nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone is currently being challenged in court docket.
Abortion bans are well-liked between some religious conservatives who are aspect of the GOP voting base, but the issue has motivated lots of other people to vote for Democrats. Republicans in latest weeks and months have experienced defeats in elections centered on abortion obtain in states these as Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.
DeSantis is envisioned to announce his presidential candidacy just after the session ends in May, with his possible White Household operate in element buoyed by the conservative guidelines authorized by the Republican supermajority in the Statehouse this yr.
A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Get together were being arrested and billed with trespassing in the course of a protest in Tallahassee from the 6-7 days ban. In a past ditch shift to hold off the bill’s passage in the Household on Thursday, Democrats submitted dozens of amendments to the proposal, all of which had been turned down by Republicans.
“Women’s wellness and their personal right to decide on is being stolen,” claimed Democratic Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson. “So I request: Is Florida certainly a no cost state?”
