TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — 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, has previously signaled his support for the proposal and is expected to sign it into law.
“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 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.
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 to, 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.”
