Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs 15-week abortion ban into law

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a 15-week abortion ban into regulation on Thursday because the state joined a rising conservative push to limit entry to the process forward of a U.S. Supreme Court docket determination that would roll again abortion rights within the nation.

“This can signify essentially the most vital protections for all times which have been enacted on this state in a technology,” DeSantis stated as he signed the invoice at an evangelical church within the metropolis of Kissimmee.

Republicans nationwide have moved to put new restrictions on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court docket signalled it could uphold a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. The excessive court docket’s determination, anticipated this summer time, might doubtlessly weaken or overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 determination that established a nationwide proper to abortion.

The regulation DeSantis signed on Thursday offers a major blow to general abortion entry within the South, the place Florida has offered wider entry to the process than its regional neighbours.

No exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking

The brand new regulation, which takes impact July 1, accommodates exceptions if the abortion is critical to avoid wasting a mom’s life, stop severe damage or if the fetus has a deadly abnormality.

It doesn’t enable for exemptions in instances the place pregnancies have been brought on by rape, incest or human trafficking, regardless of a number of Democratic makes an attempt to amend the invoice. Below present regulation, Florida permits abortions as much as 24 weeks.

Debate over the proposal grew deeply private and revealing contained in the legislature, as lawmakers recalled their very own abortions and experiences with sexual assault in typically tearful speeches on the Home and Senate flooring.

Republicans have repeatedly referred to as the 15-week ban affordable, citing state statistics that present solely six per cent of Florida’s abortions final yr occurred after the primary trimester, or the eleventh week.

Democrats have been fast to criticize the brand new regulation after the signing.

“Politicians don’t have any enterprise getting between a affected person and her physician,” stated Home Democratic chief Evan Jenne. “This 15-week abortion ban takes away each lady’s proper to make private selections that ought to solely be made by themselves, with their household, their physician and their religion.”

Comparable abortion bans in different states

The laws got here a number of months after the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s conservative majority indicated it could uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban. There has additionally been substantial help among the many conservative justices for eliminating Roe altogether.

If Roe is overturned, 26 states are sure or more likely to rapidly ban or severely prohibit abortion, in line with the Guttmacher Institute, a New York think-tank that helps abortion rights.

Throughout the debate over the Florida laws, in addition to on the invoice’s signing ceremony, Republicans stated they need the state to be effectively positioned to restrict entry to abortions if the Supreme Court docket upholds Mississippi’s regulation.

“The fact of the Roe determination is that males on the Supreme Court docket proclaimed that ladies, with a view to obtain equality with males, should have the ability to kill their very own kids,” stated Republican Rep. Erin Grall, the invoice’s sponsor. “As a lady, I refuse to simply accept such a perverse model of equality.”

Elsewhere within the U.S., Republican lawmakers have launched new abortion restrictions, some much like a Texas regulation that bans abortion after roughly six weeks and leaves enforcement as much as personal residents.

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt lately signed a invoice to make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by as much as a decade in jail. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in March signed laws to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court docket leaves Mississippi’s regulation in place.