TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After the Florida House of Representatives approved the ban on abortion for pregnancies that are 15 weeks or longer — without exceptions for rape or incest — a similar bill is in the hands of Florida senators.
A full-term pregnancy is about 40 weeks. The Florida law as it stands bans abortions for women who have been pregnant for 24 weeks or longer. Democrats in the Senate are preparing to fight for exceptions to help crime victims.
“Having to process and deal with the trauma of sexual assault and then having to decide whether to keep or terminate a pregnancy, you would think we would give somebody a little bit of time and grace to make that decision,” Sen. Lauren Book said.
Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, filed SB 146: Fetal and Infant Mortality Reduction on Jan. 11. The health policy committee cleared it with a 6-4 vote to the appropriations committee on Feb. 2. Democratic Book and Senators Shevrin D. “Shev” Jones, Bobby Powell, and Janet Cruz were the dissenting votes.
The appropriations committee has seven Democrats: Senators Book, Randolph Bracy, Audrey Gibson, Jason W. B. Pizzo, Bobby Powell, Darryl Ervin Rouson, and Linda Stewart. The 13 other members are Republicans. Their next meeting is at 1 p.m. on Monday and the proposed bill is the first item on the agenda.
Republicans expect Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign the bill, which is similar to the Mississippi law that the U.S. Supreme Court justices are reviewing.
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