The Florida state legislature has passed a law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, with the exception of fatal fetal abnormality or “serious risk” to the mother.
QUICK FACTS:
- Florida’s state legislature passed a piece of legislation banning abortions after 15 weeks gestation, according to Yahoo News.
- The law is now being sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign the Republican-authored legislation as soon as it gets to his desk.
- There are two primary exceptions to the new restrictive abortion law, the first is for fatal fetal abnormality in the child and the second for “serious risk” to the mother.
- There were no exceptions made for rape or incest in the legislation, seeming to indicate that it was based on the concept of “beginning of life” rather than any political exceptions for personal experience.
- President Joe Biden said on Friday that he “will not stand” for the abortion ban without exceptions for rape and incest, according to The Orland Sentinel.
- State Democrats called the bill “extreme” and “anti-freedom” saying it was “a direct assault on the people of Florida and our constitutional rights.”
REPUBLICAN BACKING FOR THE MEASURE:
- “I think the protections are warranted, and I think we’ll be able to sign that in short order,” he said Friday according to the Sentinel.
- The bill’s sponsor, state Senator Kelli Stargel, defended the bill’s lack of exceptions, saying she rejected the idea that a “child should be killed because of the circumstances in which it was conceived,” according to Newsmax.
- “I believe we have a unique opportunity in the fact that the Supreme Court is considering 15 weeks right now,” said Republican State Rep. Erin Grall, who sponsored the Florida bill in the House. “This would allow Florida to save as many babies as possible as soon as possible after that decision is made,”
- During an earlier debate about the bill Rep. Dana Trabulsy made an impassioned and expected plea to fellow lawmakers saying she previously had an abortion and has “regretted it everyday since,” according to KPCC Florida. “This is the right to life and to give up life is unconscionable to me,” she said.
BACKGROUND:
- Florida is the most recent state to pass the 15-week abortion ban following West Virginia House of Delegates and the Arizona state Senate approved similar bills.
- Mississippi and Texas have also made strides in restricting the ability to kill unborn children, leading to the Mississippi’s law that went to the U.S. Supreme that, if upheld, would largely overturn Roe v. Wade.
