The Republican-dominated Florida legislature has approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by Governor Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run.
Mr DeSantis is expected to sign the Bill into law. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.
A six-week ban would give DeSantis a key political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy built on his national brand as a conservative standard bearer.
The policy would also have wider implications for abortion access throughout the South in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v Wade and leaving decisions about abortion access to states.
Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, while Georgia forbids the procedure after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks.
“We have the opportunity to lead the national debate about the importance of protecting life and giving every child the opportunity to be born and find his or her purpose,” said Republican Jenna Persons-Mulicka, who carried the Bill in the House.
Democrats and abortion-rights groups say Florida’s proposal would ban almost all abortions because many women do not yet realise they’re pregnant at six weeks.
The Bill contains some exceptions, including to save the woman’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be allowed until 15 weeks of pregnancy, provided a woman has documentation such as a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has called the rape and incest provisions sensible.
Drugs used in medication-induced abortions — which make up the majority of those provided nationally — could be dispensed only in person or by a physician under the Florida bill. Separately, nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone is being challenged in court.
Florida’s six-week ban would take effect only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge that is before the state Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservatives.
“I can’t think of any Bill that’s going to provide more protections to more people who are more vulnerable than this piece of legislation,” said Republican representative Mike Beltran, who said the Bill’s exceptions and six-week timeframe represented a compromise.
Abortion bans are popular among some religious conservatives who are part of the GOP voting base, but the issue has motivated many others to vote for Democrats.
Republicans in recent weeks and months have suffered defeats in elections centered on abortion access in states such as Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Mr DeSantis, who often places himself on the front lines of culture war issues, has said he backs the six-week ban.
Mr DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential candidacy after the session ends in May, with his potential White House run in part buoyed by the conservative policies approved by the Republican supermajority in the Statehouse this year.
Democrats, without power at any level of state government, have mostly turned to stall tactics and protests to oppose the Bill, which easily passed both chambers on largely party-line votes. The Senate approved it last week, and the House did so on Thursday.
A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party were arrested and charged with trespassing during a protest in Tallahassee against the six-week ban. In a last-ditch move to delay the Bill’s passage in the House on Thursday, Democrats filed dozens of amendments to the proposal, all of which were rejected by Republicans.
“Women’s health and their personal right to choose is being stolen,” said Democratic representative Felicia Simone Robinson. “So I ask: Is Florida truly a free state?”
