The Florida Legislature is poised to pass a ban on abortion after 15 weeks that does not make exceptions for cases of rape or incest, a measure that looks practically identical to the one currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state House of Representatives passed the legislation late Thursday, and it goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee for review Monday, positioning it to pass out of the state Senate by the end of next week.
“We should take steps toward ending this barbaric late-term abortion procedure because it destroys our humanity, and it strikes at the core of everything that is wrong with our communities in our country today,” said Erin Grall, a Republican representative who headed up the legislative effort.
REPUBLICANS STEP UP PRESSURE ON BIDEN TO ROLL BACK FEDERAL PANDEMIC MANDATES
The bill, HB 5, is likely to pass through the GOP-controlled Senate and land on Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk without much input from the Democratic side. The debates over the bill ran all day Thursday, and none of the amendments introduced by Democrats, such as one that would provide an exception for rape and incest, made it through. If passed, the deadline for legal abortion would shorten from 24 weeks to 15 weeks and would only allow for exceptions in the cases of fetal abnormalities or extreme danger to the life of the mother.
“We have the opportunity today to pass once-in-a-lifetime legislation to save lives — to save babies,” said state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, a sponsor of the bill.
DeSantis has signaled his support for the bill. At a press event last month on the day the bill was introduced, DeSantis told reporters that he was open to anti-abortion legislation such as this one.
“We’re going to be welcoming it,” DeSantis said. “I think if you look at what’s been done in some of these other states — I mean when you start talking about 15 weeks, where you have really serious pain and heartbeats and all this stuff — having protections, I think, is something that makes a lot of sense.”
The 15-week Florida ban closely resembles the one out of Mississippi that has been tied up in the courts since its passage in 2018. It is at the center of the most consequential abortion rights case to make it to the Supreme Court since the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade to establish the legal right to an abortion.
The case in question is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Justices will consider whether states can ban abortion before viability, the point at which survival is possible outside the womb — estimated to be between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. Oral arguments took place in December, and the majority-conservative court seemed poised to uphold the Mississippi law, possibly delivering a death blow to the precedent set by the Roe ruling.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump nominee, for example, showed no qualms about overturning Roe. She floated adoption services as a viable alternative to the burdens of “forced parenting.” Chief Justice John Roberts, meanwhile, questioned the necessity of abiding by the court’s definition of “viability” if the underlying motive for the suit is protecting a woman’s right to choose.
“If you think that the issue is one of choice … viability … doesn’t have anything to do with choice. If it really is an issue about choice, why is 15 weeks not enough time?” Roberts said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Florida bill is one of several 15-week bans making their way through state legislatures. GOP lawmakers in West Virginia and Arizona advanced bills this week to ban abortion at 15 weeks. Lawmakers in other states, such as Wisconsin, have advanced legislation that mirrors Texas’s SB 8, which bans abortion at six weeks. That law is unique in its construction because it is not enforceable by the state. Instead, enforcement power is handed over to citizens who can report anyone they see aiding and abetting an abortion, such as doctors. The incentive to report abortions is high, at “no less than $10,000” per abortion procedure.
Confidence that the majority-conservative court will overturn Roe has emboldened Republican state leaders to introduce a flood of anti-abortion legislation. Last year saw the most anti-abortion legislation ever, with 660 restrictions introduced as a part of more than 400 individual bills, according to abortion rights group Guttmacher Institute.
