Gov. DeSantis to sign 15-week abortion ban into Florida law - FOX 13 Tampa

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - A Florida bill that prohibits doctors from performing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy will be signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Thursday, the Florida governor will sign the bill from Nacion de Fe, a church in Kissimmee. It was one of the most bitterly disputed issues of the 2022 legislative session.

"We are here today to protect life. We are here to defend those who can’t defend themselves," DeSantis said at the beginning of his press conference. "It’s a statement of our values that every life is important."

While the bill was making its way through the state legislature, dozens of people testified against it.

"These are babies. It’s an individual inside that woman that has a separate DNA, a separate body, a separate person," Senate bill sponsor Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, said. "And the question we’re asking ourself is, when does that baby in the womb have the same rights as the mother that’s carrying it with that right to be able to live and to thrive and to grow?"

Critics slammed the proposal for not including an exception to the 15-week limit for victims of rape or incest. Republicans rejected a proposed change that would have created an exception for pregnancies that are the result of rape, incest, or human trafficking.

Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, filed the proposed change and said she was appealing to senators’ "basic human dignity."

"Should this bill pass in its current form, I am deeply, deeply concerned about what it will mean for women and girls across this state who may become pregnant as a result of rape, incest or human trafficking. We need to give women options all of the time," Book said.

Lawmakers and other people on both sides of the issue also are closely watching a U.S. Supreme Court case about the constitutionality of Mississippi law that similarly restricts abortions to 15 weeks.

The case is widely seen as a challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights. Justices on the conservative-dominated Supreme Court heard arguments in December.

Stargel said that the Supreme Court’s weighing of the Mississippi law was a factor in the decision to propose the 15-week restriction, adding that "the baby feels pain at 15 weeks." Roe v. Wade generally has protected abortion rights until about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Rep. Will Robinson, R-Bradenton, said he would like to see Florida join the legal fight, as the Supreme Court case could determine whether the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights is scaled back or overturned.

"I disagree with some of my colleagues. That actually, if this bill becomes law, I want to see Florida join Mississippi and the Dobbs (Mississippi) decision to allow the Supreme Court to readdress, in my view, the arbitrary viability standard in Roe," Robinson said.

The bill would provide an exception to the 15-week limit for instances of a "fatal fetal abnormality." The bill defines such abnormalities as a "terminal condition that, in reasonable medical judgment, regardless of the provision of life-saving medical treatment, is incompatible with" survival outside the womb.

Two physicians would be required to certify that such an abnormality exists under the bill. Democrats criticized that proposed requirement as "onerous" and argued it could put an undue burden particularly on Floridians living in rural areas.

"Obviously you don’t have two OB-GYNs in your rolodex. You’re not a patient of two of them. So, by definition of this bill, you have to find a new doctor," said Sen. Tina Polsky D-Boca Raton, adding that the wait for an appointment with a new physician can take weeks.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration in early January posted statistics about abortions in 2021 in Florida:

— 74,756: Total abortions in 2021.

— 112: Decrease in abortions from 2020.

— 70,265: Abortions in the first trimester.

— 4,491: Abortions in the second trimester.

— 0: Abortions in the third trimester.

—111: Reported abortions due to rape.

— 8: Reported abortions due to incest.

— 13,467: Abortions reported for residents of Miami-Dade County, the most in the state.

— 10,184: Abortions reported for residents of Broward County, the second-highest total.

— 3: Counties (Glades, Lafayette and Liberty) in which fewer than 20 residents had reported abortions.

The state defines the first trimester as through the 11th week of gestation; the second trimester as from the 12th week of gestation through the 23rd week; and the third trimester as after the 23rd week.

News Service of Florida contributed to this report

source: https://www.fox13news.com/news/gov-desantis-signs-15-week-abortion-ban-into-florida-law

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