Florida House panel OKs 6-week abortion ban, won’t soften it
TALLAHASSEE — Republicans rejected attempts to loosen restrictions in a proposed six-week abortion ban on Thursday, despite the pleas of tearful advocates who said the measure would kill women and retraumatize rape victims if it becomes law.
A Florida House panel voted 13-5 along party lines to advance the bill, shooting down Democratic amendments that aimed to lessen requirements for rape victims and patients who get abortions for medical reasons.
“It’s a bill that recognizes the importance and the value of the life of innocent unborn human beings,” said Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, the bill’s sponsor.
The proposed ban includes exceptions for rape and incest up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, provided the victim can show a police report, medical record, restraining order or court document as evidence of the crime. It also includes exceptions for the life of the mother or to avert “serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment.”
But abortion-rights advocates testified to lawmakers that they are putting the government in charge of personal medical decisions and setting up roadblocks for people who need abortion as a life-saving procedure or because they were raped.
The proposal is a near-total abortion ban because many women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks, they said during the controversial legislation’s first public hearing.
Alena Vargas, 32, of Gainesville, said she fears that women like her who are at high risk of pregnancy complications will be blocked from accessing medical care.
“This is not right,” Vargas said, holding back tears. “In 2013, I got the care I needed. Those laws were right. Please do not support this bill. You will be killing women like me with my condition.”
At issue is a requirement that two doctors sign off on an abortion exception for medical reasons. Opponents said that is a difficult requirement for people living in rural areas and other parts of the state where there is a shortage of physicians.
Democrats offered an amendment to only require one doctor’s signature, which was voted down.
“We don’t even have enough OB-GYNs in order to see people just wanting to go and get an annual pap smear,” Rep. Gallop Franklin, D-Tallahassee, said of rural areas in his district.
One doctor can authorize an abortion if another doctor is unavailable and there is an “imminent” risk of death or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment.” Abortion would be allowed if a “fatal fetal abnormality” is detected, and the pregnancy has not progressed to the third trimester.
Democrats tried to add a sworn statement to the documents rape and incest victims could provide to get an abortion exception.
Taylor Aguilera of Lakeland shared her story with lawmakers of her pregnancy after being raped.
“I chose not to report my rape because I wanted to get as far away from that situation and not relive ... a second rape,” she said. “I got the choice. ... If you pass this today, there are going to be women and people who don’t report who are not going to have the opportunity to make the choices for themselves.”
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, made a failed attempt to scrap the abortion ban entirely.
Anti-abortion advocates voiced their support but called for a ban on all abortions in Florida. They said lawmakers should go further with the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade, which provided a constitutional right to an abortion. That decision returned abortion policy to state legislatures.
“Here and now in post-Roe v. Wade Florida to do anything less than full protection is cowardly and unacceptable,” said Andrew Shirvell, executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn.
State Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, said she considers the six-week ban to be at odds with the talking points of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans.
“We talk about being a free state, and this is literally the antithesis of that,” Hunschofsky said.
DeSantis, widely seen as a possible GOP presidential candidate, has said he welcomes “pro-life legislation” but hasn’t explicitly declared he would sign the six-week ban. Republicans hold supermajorities in the Florida Legislature, so the proposal is likely to pass.
Florida currently bans most abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy under a law passed last year that’s being challenged in the state Supreme Court.
Florida’s six-week abortion ban would take effect if the Florida Supreme Court overturns decades of precedent and rules that the state constitution’s privacy clause does not grant abortion rights. The state court has gotten more conservative in recent years with DeSantis appointing four of the seven justices.
