Senate passes 6-week abortion ban

Image via Florida House.

The Senate has passed the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” which is one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country.

SB 300, filed by Fort Pierce Republican Sen. Erin Grall, would ban doctors from knowingly performing or inducing a termination of pregnancy after the sixth week of gestation. This would represent a change from the current 15-week threshold, which legislators hailed as a reasonable compromise when they passed it last year.

“Some of us may have thought we’d never be where we are. But we are,” Grall said in close, acknowledging the SCOTUS’ Dobbs decision last year as allowing movement beyond what seemed possible before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

2022’s HB 5 made no exception for cases of rape and incest, a controversy at the time. However, the new bill would allow abortion up to the 15th week of pregnancy if the woman was impregnated by human trafficking, rape or incest or a combination thereof. That exception would include statutory rapes.

Other exceptions would apply. If the pregnant woman is judged by two doctors to be in danger of dying or suffering “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition,” she could have an abortion. If only one doctor were available, that sole physician’s recommendation would suffice.

Likewise, if the fetus had a “fatal abnormality,” abortion would be permitted during the first two trimesters.

Democrats tried, and failed, to stop the bill one last time before the passage.

Starting off debate for Democrats, Sen. Lori Berman said that last year, “we were told 15 weeks was moderate,” and now the state is in “extreme territory,” a nod to last year’s framing versus this year’s expansion of the bill.

“The boys in this state had better be prepared,” Berman added, contending there would be “a lot more charges of rape in the state,” and calling the legislation a “de facto abortion ban.”

Sen. Tracie Davis told a story from her Jacksonville district about a “young girl in middle school who showed up at a clinic, a victim of incest, who was denied an abortion because she was past the 15 weeks.”

“Dropping the limit to six weeks for this abortion ban means it will happen even more,” Davis predicted.

One Republican joined with Democrats in offering a note of caution before passage. As she had in committees, Sen. Alexis Catalayud noted that when she was knocking on doors during her campaign last year, she pledged to support the 15-week ban and would “vote ‘no’ today on this policy,” despite human trafficking being added as an exception at her behest.

Catalayud and other Republicans testifying on the bill, meanwhile, were interrupted on numerous occasions by protesters watching the debate. But those voices didn’t shake their resolve. Eventually, the gallery was cleared of spectators entirely during a ten-minute recess. The bill then passed by a 26 to 13 vote, with Catalayud and Sen. Corey Simon joining the Democrats in opposition.

After the vote, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo offered a statement in support.

“The Heartbeat Protection Act builds on Florida’s strong track record of protecting the most vulnerable, especially the unborn, and strengthens state efforts to promote adoption, and support families, with significant resources to benefit infants, young children, and parents, which we hope will encourage more Floridians in difficult and unplanned situations to choose life for their babies,” the Naples Republican said.

“Our bill also includes strong and clear exceptions for rape, incest, and human trafficking, in addition to those already available for the life of the mother. We also clarify the existing exception for the horrible situation when parents are facing the heartbreaking diagnosis of a fatal fetal abnormality.”

The companion bill is moving in the House as well. Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka’s measure (HB 7) passed its final committee Thursday, with an amendment that aligned the House and Senate products before the exception for human trafficking was added to the Senate bill later that same day.