Florida House Passes Ban on Abortion After 15 Weeks, Sends Bill to Senate
Florida's House of Representatives passed a bill to ban abortions after
15 weeks of pregnancy late on Wednesday, a measure several
Republican-led states are pushing as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs the
constitutionality of such limits.
The approval on a party-line 78-39 vote moments before midnight sent
consideration of the legislation to the state Senate, which is expected
to pass the measure in the near future. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a
Republican, has likewise signaled his support for the bill.
Enactment in the Tallahassee statehouse would significantly reduce
access to late-term abortions for women across the U.S. Southeast, many
of whom travel hundreds of miles to end pregnancies in Florida because
of stricter abortion laws in surrounding states.
Republican lawmakers around the country have introduced bills
mirroring a 15-week abortion ban enacted by Mississippi in 2018 and now
under review by the Supreme Court on appeal, after lower courts blocked
the measure as unconstitutional. Arizona's Senate and West Virginia's
House passed similar 15-week abortion bans on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court has indicated its willingness to allow Mississippi's
law to stand, even though it conflicts with the landmark 1973 Roe v.
Wade decision establishing a woman's right to end her pregnancy before a
fetus is viable, typically around 24 weeks. Besides seeking
reinstatement of its abortion law, the state of Mississippi has asked
the high court to overturn Roe v. Wade altogether.
Florida's measure makes exceptions to the 15-week rule only in cases
when the mother is at risk of death or "irreversible physical
impairment," or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. No exceptions for
rape or incest are included.
Final action on the measure followed several hours of passionate debate between opponents and supporters of the bill.
Representative Robin Bartelman, a Democrat and self-described
"Catholic for choice," said the bill inserts the will of legislators
into the most private of healthcare decisions, adding: "I feel as a
woman it is my right to make choices about my body."
Republican David Borrero countered that Roe v. Wade was a
fundamentally flawed ruling that should be overturned because it "failed
to recognize the humanity and the personhood of the unborn."
The state currently permits abortions up to 24 weeks without a
mandatory waiting period, meaning a woman can terminate her pregnancy
the day she arrives at a clinic.
A 2017 survey by the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights
advocacy research group, counted 65 abortion-providing sites in Florida
that year, more than triple the number of any other state in the South.
"So a 15-week abortion ban would have a very big impact on access to
care for Floridians and those in the South," Elizabeth Nash, a
Guttmacher state policy expert, told Reuters.
Anti-abortion legislators hope the 15-week bans would withstand legal
challenges as Mississippi's case is pending. The Supreme Court's ruling
in that case is expected this spring.
Florida's bill would take effect July 1 if enacted.
