TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Washington Insider Magazine) – Abortions beyond 15 weeks would be prohibited in Florida under legislation submitted to Governor Ron DeSantis late On Thursday by Republican senators, concluding a tense argument in the statehouse as a potential Supreme Court decision might restrict abortion rights in the United States.
DeSantis, a Republican, has already expressed support for the bill and is anticipated to sign it.
After the United States Supreme Court hinted it might maintain an identical 15-week abortion restriction in Mississippi and perhaps overturn Roe v. Wade, Republicans throughout the country are aiming to restrict access to the procedure. In such a case, a ruling is due later this year.
ABC NEWS reports that If the abortion is required to preserve a mother’s life, avoid substantial damage to the mother, or if the fetus has a fatal defect, the Florida statute makes an exemption. Abortions are now legal in the state up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
As the bill advanced through the Republican-controlled statehouse, arguments became increasingly intense and personal, with senators reliving their own abortions and sexual assault traumas.
Senator Lauren Book, a Democrat who channeled her nanny’s sexual abuse into a career of assisting other survivors, disclosed this week that she was drugged and raped by many men when she was a teenager. Senators should grant exceptions for rape, incest, and human trafficking, she said.
Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy told members in a separate debate after the measure cleared the GOP-controlled Senate last month that she had once undergone an abortion but also has “regretted it every day since.”
Republicans have argued that the plan is sensible since it would not outright prohibit abortion and yet allows women ample time to contemplate it, even in circumstances of rape, prostitution, or incest.
Comparable 15-week abortion restrictions have been proposed by Republican legislators in West Virginia and Arizona, which are similar to the Mississippi statute currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court. Republicans in other states have based the bill on a Texas law that effectively prohibits abortions after 6 weeks.
