OUTRAGE

Florida Gop To Ban Abortion After 6 Weeks

Jason Parsley

Last year Florida banned abortion after 15 weeks. But apparently that wasn’t enough. On Monday lawmakers filed bills that would limit abortion to six weeks, outraging democrats, including the White House.

“Politicians like Governor DeSantis espouse ‘freedom for all,’ while directly attacking the freedom to make one’s own health care decisions,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told media outlets. “This proposal is wrong and out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Floridians, who support a woman’s right to choose.”

The latest restrictions provide an exception for life of the mother or serious physical damage, but critics point out that in other states the vague definitions of “life of the mother” has scared medical providers away from performing legally allowed abortions.

In one recent example in Florida, a woman’s baby was diagnosed with Potter syndrome at about 24 weeks. The doctor told her the condition is incompatible with life. She decided to terminate the pregnancy, but doctors refused to perform an abortion. So instead she is now forced to carry the baby to term. Medical experts expect the baby to survive only 20 minutes to a couple of hours after delivery.

On Monday five women in Texas sued the state saying medical providers put their lives at risk because of the state’s vaguely worded abortion ban. Some of those women left the state to have abortions elsewhere. Two of the fetuses had no skulls and two of them were threatening the lives of their twin.

If passed the Florida law also provides exceptions for rape and incest but women will have to provide proof of the crime. Proof includes “a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation providing evidence that she is obtaining the termination of pregnancy because she is a victim of rape or incest.”

Those exceptions end at 15 weeks.

DeSantis has signaled he supports more restrictions on abortion in the state.

“We are proud to be pro-family and we are proud to be pro-life,” he said Tuesday during a speech.

“If it’s a war they want, it’s a war they will get,” Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book wrote in a statement. “This issue bridges the partisan divide, and we will not go down as easily as they believe.”

But Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers and it’s unclear how they would be able to stop the bans from becoming law.

Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando), who formerly worked for Planned Parenthood, quickly blasted the legislation.

“Florida Republicans have once again demonstrated a complete disregard for the women of our state and for our collective freedoms,” Eskamani said in a statement. “As we’ve already seen in other states, a six-week ban is extreme, dangerous, and will force millions of people out of state to seek care and others will be forced into pregnancy.”