Florida Lawmakers Ban Most Abortions After 15 Weeks

Florida lawmakers voted on Thursday to ban most abortions after 15 weeks, a move that will severely restrict access to the procedure for women in that state.

The bill — modeled after a similar abortion ban in Mississippi that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on this summer — now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has expressed his support for signing the bill into law.

Florida now allows abortions until 24 weeks, with fewer restrictions than other Southern states. The new bill, which includes no exceptions for rape or incest, passed by a 23-15 vote late Thursday night after an emotional debate in the State Senate, The New York Times reported.

Other restrictive legislation on the verge of passage in Florida includes banning instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school grades, and allowing parents to sue public school districts if students believe that their teacher sought to make them feel discomfort about a historical event because of their race, sex or national origin, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the ‘Stop WOKE Act.’

“We’ve accomplished more in this state than anyone thought possible,” DeSantis told a rowdy crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando last week, “but I’ll tell you this: We have only begun to fight.”

But critics of the raft of measures have claimed that the sexual orientation and gender identity bill would cause a chilling effect in classrooms and harm LGBTQ youth, who are already at higher risk of bullying and suicide than their peers. They added that the bill on how to teach history penalizes teachers and dismisses the country’s racist past.

Florida Democrats expressed dismay over the passage of the abortion legislation.

This [abortion] bill puts politicians, bureaucrats and the government between a woman and her access to health care,” Sen. Janet Cruz, a Tampa Democrat, said of the abortion bill on Thursday. “It will absolutely result in a woman seeking unsafe abortions and dying as a result.”

But Democrats number so few in the Florida Legislature that they cannot block or amend most legislation. Minority Leader Sen. Lauren Book, of Plantation, referred to the remaining days of the legislative session as “hell week.”

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