TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Getting arrested during a demonstration didn’t stop the Florida Senate Democratic leader from continuing to protest against the Florida Republicans’ proposed abortion bill.
Sen. Lauren Book said Tuesday there is urgency.
“I know women and girls across the state of Florida will die,” she said. “They will not be able to get the healthcare that they need.”
Florida Senate Bill 300: Pregnancy and Parenting Support, also referred to as the“Heartbeat Protection Act,”; cuts the ban that doesn’t allow abortions before 15 weeks of pregnancy to six weeks.
“That is, let’s make no mistake, an all-out ban on abortion,” Book said.
Florida Sen. Erin Grall filed the general bill on March 7 to prohibit “physicians from knowingly performing or inducing a termination of pregnancy after the gestational age of the fetus is determined to be more than 6 weeks.”
Senators Joe Gruters and Clay Yarborough co-introduced the bill with exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or human trafficking, but the burden of proof is on the victims.
“While this bill was passing off the floor, the governor was signing a bill where you don’t have to have papers to purchase a deadly weapon,” Book said. “But women have to have papers to prove a rape and incest exception to get an abortion? Where are we? What are we doing?”
Dr. Debra Mollen said the abortion restriction will have a “harmful” impact.
“What I would love to see is a concerted effort to have a basic education on these issues,” Mollen said. “Once people understand the issues, they are a lot more compassionate to people seeking an abortion and people affected by these laws.”
The Florida Senate’s Health Policy and Fiscal Policy committees voted to move the bill forward on March 20 and March 28 and it was placed on the third reading on March 30. State senators passed it as amended on April 3.
Florida House Bill 7: Pregnancy and Parenting Support was added to the second reading calendar on March 31. Book expects the vote should happen next week before it reaches Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk.
If DeSantis signs the bill into law as expected, it would only take effect if the state’s current ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge that is before the Florida Supreme Court.
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