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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 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 normal 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 will be detected, which is round six weeks.
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“We now have the chance to guide the nationwide debate in regards to the significance of defending life and giving each baby the chance to be born and discover his or her goal,” mentioned Republican Rep. Jenna Individuals-Mulicka, who carried the invoice within the Home.
Democrats and abortion-rights teams say Florida’s proposal would ban virtually all abortions as a result of many ladies don’t but understand they’re pregnant at six weeks.
The invoice comprises some exceptions, together with to avoid wasting the lady’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest can be allowed till 15 weeks of being pregnant, offered a lady has documentation comparable to a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has referred to as the rape and incest provisions smart.
Medicine utilized in medication-induced abortions—which make up the vast majority of these offered nationally—could possibly be disbursed solely in particular person or by a doctor underneath 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 susceptible 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 in style amongst some non secular 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 comparable to Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“Have we discovered nothing?” Home Democratic Minority Chief Fentrice Driskell mentioned 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 typically locations himself on the entrance traces of tradition struggle 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 Might, along with his potential White Home run partly buoyed by the conservative insurance policies authorized by the Republican supermajority within the Statehouse this 12 months.
Democrats, with out energy at any degree 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 authorized it final week, and the Home did so Thursday.
A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Social gathering had 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 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 actually a free state?”
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