Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signs six-week abortion ban bill

Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis—widely expected to run for president in 2024—has signed a bill that prohibits women who are into six weeks of pregnancy from getting abortions.

The bill became law late Thursday night after DeSantis’ nod, just hours after Florida's Republican-led House of Representatives approved the ban, with 70 voting for and 40 voting against. It had been passed in the state Senate on April 3.

The legislation will take effect only if the state's current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge currently before the Florida Supreme Court.

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“We are proud to support life and family in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said after acceding to the bill.

He claimed the law would "defend the dignity of human life and transform Florida into a pro-family state".

The move comes months after the Florida Supreme Court agreed to take up a legal challenge to the state’s 15-week abortion ban on a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a handful of abortion providers challenging the recently-passed law.

The conservative top court had previously upheld the right to abortion by citing a decades-old privacy clause in the state constitution that extends those rights to abortion.

Florida has been considered a safe haven for those seeking abortion since Roe v. Wade—which gave women the constitutional right to abortion—was overturned in June last year.

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So far, at least dozens of states have enforced total bans on abortions. They are: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

Georgia, too, has enforced a law that restricts pregnant women from getting an abortionat around six weeks.

Expectedly, the bill was criticised by Democrats and abortion-rights groups who called the proposal “extreme” because “many women do not yet realize they are pregnant until after six weeks.”

The bill, though, contains some exceptions, including saving the woman’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be allowed until 15 weeks of pregnancy, provided a woman has documentation such as a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has called the rape and incest provisions sensible.

There has been a national debate over abortion rights in the US since a federal judge suspended the original approval of a widely used abortion drug, mifepristone, last week.

That suspension was later blocked by an appellate court, and the Biden administration has said it will ask the Supreme Court to restore full access to the drug.

(With inputs from agencies)

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