Florida lawmakers pass law banning abortions after 15 weeks with limited exceptions – National
Abortions after 15 weeks can be banned in Florida below a invoice Republican senators despatched to Gov. Ron DeSantis late Thursday, capping a bitter debate within the statehouse as a looming U.S. Supreme Courtroom determination could restrict abortion rights in America.
DeSantis, a Republican, has beforehand signaled his help for the proposal and is anticipated to signal it into legislation.
“I need abortion to be authorized protected and accessible however I concern this invoice strikes us within the different path, forcing girls with means to journey out of state and people struggling economically to resort to doubtlessly harmful choices,” mentioned Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat.
The measure comes as Republicans throughout the nation transfer to tighten entry to the process after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom signaled it could uphold an analogous 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi and doubtlessly overturn Roe v. Wade. A choice in that case is anticipated later this yr.
The Florida invoice comprises exceptions if the abortion is important to save lots of a mom’s life, stop severe harm to the mom or if the fetus has a deadly abnormality. It doesn’t, nonetheless, embody exemptions for circumstances of rape, incest or human trafficking.
The state at the moment permits abortions inside as much as 24 weeks of being pregnant and not using a obligatory ready interval, which means a lady can terminate her being pregnant the day she arrives at a clinic.
Because the measure moved via the GOP-controlled statehouse, debates typically grew emotional and revealing, with lawmakers recalling their very own abortions and experiences with sexual assault.
This week, Sen. Lauren E book, a Democrat who turned the ache of being sexually abused by her nanny right into a profession of serving to different survivors, tearfully revealed she was additionally drugged and raped by a number of males when she was a younger teenager. She implored senators to permit exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
“It’s not OK to power somebody who’s been sexually assaulted and impregnated to hold that being pregnant to time period in the event that they don’t need too, it’s simply not,” E book mentioned. “And if a lady or a lady wants greater than 15 weeks to determine, we should always be capable to give that to her.”
In a separate change from when the invoice handed the GOP-controlled Home final month, Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy informed lawmakers she beforehand had an abortion however has “regretted it on a regular basis since.”
“That is the precise to life and to surrender life is unconscionable to me,” she mentioned.
Republicans have typically mentioned the invoice is cheap as a result of it isn’t a complete ban on the process and nonetheless offers girls sufficient time to contemplate whether or not to get an abortion, even in circumstances of rape, incest or trafficking.
“The one factor that we’re asking on this invoice is that no matter determination you make, you do it earlier than the 15 weeks,” mentioned Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia.
GOP lawmakers in West Virginia and Arizona have additionally launched comparable 15-week abortion bans much like the Mississippi legislation below evaluate by the Supreme Courtroom. Republicans in different states have modeled laws after a legislation in Texas which successfully banned abortions after six weeks.
Earlier than the vote Thursday, White Home officers hosted a roundtable dialogue with abortion rights advocacy teams and Democratic state lawmakers in regards to the Florida invoice in addition to Republican restrictions in different states.
In a press release in regards to the assembly, the White Home mentioned “Within the face of those challenges, administration officers reiterated the administration’s dedication to exploring each possibility to guard reproductive well being care.”
