Florida banned abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy Thursday. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that will prevent the termination of a pregnancy once the first fetal heartbeat is detected:
Signed the Heartbeat Protection Act, which expands pro-life protections and devotes resources to help young mothers and families. pic.twitter.com/quZpSj1ZPk
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 14, 2023
This regulation will also allocate a total of $143 million to fund pregnancy centers throughout the state. This money will help women not only during their pregnancy but also during the months after the child is born. In addition, it will prevent Floridan physicians from assisting a woman with an abortion through an online consultation and will require that abortion medication be distributed only at medical centers.
The measure is widely approved by Republican representatives. Mike Beltran assured, in statements reported by Infobae, that this bill grants "more protections to more vulnerable people." Congresswoman Jenna Persons-Mulicka also championed the bill. She said, in a video shared by her colleague Paul Renner, that "there is no greater purpose that drives me than to give every child the opportunity to be born and to live."
"This bill is one piece of a larger mission to stand with our families in Florida. Our work is not easy, but it is worth it because we are talking about life." -Representative @Jenna_Persons Mulicka pic.twitter.com/ELv1MzK8GW
— Paul Renner (@Paul_Renner) April 13, 2023
White House against Florida's pro-life law
The Heartbeat Protection Act lowers the time limit for allowing a woman to have an abortion from 15 weeks to six. Detractors claim that many women do not know they are pregnant until after that time. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was one of those people. She stated, in a press release, that the law "flies in the face of fundamental freedoms."
Florida’s Republican supermajority-controlled legislature sent an extreme and dangerous new abortion ban to Governor DeSantis’s desk for signature. The ban flies in the face of fundamental freedoms and is out of step with the views of the vast majority of the people of Florida and of all the United States. This ban would prevent four million Florida women of reproductive age from accessing abortion care after six weeks — before many women even know they’re pregnant. This ban would also impact the nearly 15 million women of reproductive age who live in abortion-banning states throughout the South, many of whom have previously relied on travel to Florida as an option to access care.
There are exceptions to this pro-life rule. Victims of rape, incest or human trafficking may have an abortion during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. They will, however, have to present a restraining order, police report, medical records or other medical or judicial evidence.
