Ron DeSantis Bans Late-Term Abortions In Florida

Mary Margaret OlohanApril 14, 2022

ORLANDO — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Thursday banning late-term abortions after 15 weeks gestation.

The law, HB 5, allows exceptions when the mother’s life is at risk or in danger of “irreversible physical impairment,” or if the unborn baby has a fetal abnormality, such as Down Syndrome. It does not offer exceptions for rape.

“These are protections for babies that have heartbeats, that can feel pain,” DeSantis said of HB 5 in March, when he signaled he would sign the legislation. “And this [15 weeks] is very, very late. And so I think the protections are warranted. And I think that we’ll be able to sign that in short order.”

There it is: @GovRonDeSantis bans late term abortions in Florida! pic.twitter.com/aXqDQDO93V

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2022

The Florida governor signed HB 5 as pro-life activists and Republican lawmakers push for officials to investigate the abortions of five preemie-sized babies that activists say they intercepted outside a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic.

D.C. officials have indicated they will not perform autopsies on the babies, prompting Republicans like Texas Rep. Chip Roy to question whether “Mayor Bowser and her radically pro-abortion cronies” are avoiding autopsies for ideological reasons.

Florida’s legislation has received strong pushback from President Joe Biden’s administration and from abortion supporters and groups like the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“If this ban is allowed to take effect, Floridians will be forced to travel more than 1,000 miles roundtrip to get an abortion after 15 weeks,” Elisabeth Smith, Director of State Policy & Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement in late March.

“The stakes in the Supreme Court right now could not be higher,” she added. “Americans of reproductive age today have never known a world in which they do not have the right to abortion.”

DeSantis’ press secretary tore into Biden after the president criticized the state’s upcoming pro-life legislation.

“Last night, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature passed a dangerous bill that will severely restrict women’s access to reproductive health care,” Biden said in a late-March tweet. “My Administration will not stand for the continued erosion of women’s constitutional rights.”

At the time, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw responded to the president by asking why he did not specify that the bill protects unborn babies after 15 weeks, highlighting that the Biden administration has repeatedly refused to address where it draws the line on abortion. This has caused many to infer that it has no objections to abortions at any stage of pregnancy.

“That is when they can already feel pain and they’re getting close to viability,” she said. “Babies have been born at 20 weeks and survived. What you’re arguing for is unfettered LATE TERM abortion.”

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