A bill that would limit abortions to no later than 15 weeks is awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature. NBC 6’s Marissa Bagg reports
Abortions after 15 weeks would be banned in Florida under a bill Republican senators sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis late Thursday, capping a bitter debate in the statehouse as a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision may limit abortion rights in America.
DeSantis, a Republican, said Friday that he supports the proposal and will sign it into law before it goes into effect on July 1.
"These are protections for babies that have heartbeats, that can feel pain and this is very very late and so I think when you're talking about late-term that's one thing, and so I think the protections are warranted and I think that we'll be able to sign that in short order," DeSantis said at a news conference in Jacksonville.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were among the prominent Democrats that spoke out against the bill.
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"Last night, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature passed a dangerous bill that will severely restrict women’s access to reproductive health care," Biden tweeted Friday. "My Administration will not stand for the continued erosion of women’s constitutional rights."
"The right of women to make decisions about their own bodies is non-negotiable. If signed into law, Florida’s bill would violate the constitutional right to abortion that the Supreme Court has recognized for nearly 50 years," Harris said in a statement. "It will block access to crucial reproductive health care for Floridians, with a particular impact on low-income communities, communities of color, and rural communities."
The measure comes as Republicans across the country move to tighten access to the procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court signaled it would uphold a similar 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. A decision in that case is expected later this year.
“I want abortion to be legal, safe and accessible but I fear this bill moves us in the other direction, forcing women with means to travel out of state and those struggling economically to resort to potentially dangerous options," said Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat.
The Florida bill contains exceptions if the abortion is necessary to save a mother’s life, prevent serious injury to the mother or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. The state currently allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
As the measure moved through the GOP-controlled statehouse, debates often grew emotional and revealing, with lawmakers recalling their own abortions and experiences with sexual assault.
This week, Sen. Lauren Book, a Democrat who turned the pain of being sexually abused by her nanny into a career of helping other survivors, tearfully revealed she was also drugged and raped by multiple men when she was a young teenager. She implored senators to allow exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
“It’s not OK to force someone who’s been sexually assaulted and impregnated to carry that pregnancy to term if they don’t want too, it’s just not,” Book said. “And if a woman or a girl needs more than 15 weeks to decide, we should be able to give that to her.”
In a separate exchange from when the bill passed the GOP-controlled House last month, Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy told lawmakers she previously had an abortion but has “regretted it every day since."
“This is the right to life and to give up life is unconscionable to me,” she said.
Republicans have often said the bill is reasonable because it is not a total ban on the procedure and still gives women enough time to consider whether to get an abortion, even in cases of rape, incest or trafficking.
“The only thing that we’re asking in this bill is that whatever decision you make, you do it before the 15 weeks,” said Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia.
Outside the state capital was a candlelight vigil, where about 25 people protested the Senate’s position to restrict abortions.
College student Madisyn Donley envisioned a scenario for her fellow students.
“I don’t think we should burden them with, if you get pregnant, now your whole career is derailed. There is not really maternal leave for school," she said.
Miami-Dade Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez said she would vote in favor but preferred exceptions for victims of rape.
“I’m a little bit disheartened because I actually was one of the voice votes on the Republican side that supported Sen. Book’s amendment," she said.
GOP lawmakers in West Virginia and Arizona have also introduced similar 15-week abortion bans similar to the Mississippi law under review by the Supreme Court. Republicans in other states have modeled legislation after a law in Texas which effectively banned abortions after six weeks.
Before the vote Thursday, White House officials hosted a roundtable discussion with abortion rights advocacy groups and Democratic state lawmakers about the Florida bill as well as Republican restrictions in other states. In a statement about the meeting, the White House said “In the face of these challenges, administration officials reiterated the administration’s commitment to exploring every option to protect reproductive health care.”
