Florida House PASSES six-week abortion ban backed by Ron DeSantis – after protesters sparked chaos by swarming the state capitol and throwing paper at lawmakers
- The Florida House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to outlaw abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy
- The vote was 70-40 in a body that skews heavily Republican
- READ MORE: Abortion pills can remain available but with tighter restrictions around access, federal appeals court rules
The Florida state House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to outlaw abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy.
The vote was 70-40 in a body that skews heavily Republican.
However, with just 35 Democratic seats, some GOP lawmakers joined the opposition.
The law essentially is a total ban on abortions as most women don’t realize they’re pregnant until after six weeks.
Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis supports the bill and has said he will sign it. It previously passed the Florida state Senate.
Republican state Reps. Jennifer Canady (left) and Jenna Person-Mulika (right) celebrate on the floor after Florida’s state House passed a bill that would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Both women were among the GOP’s final speakers
Protesters swarmed the state capitol building in Tallahassee amid debate on a bill that would ban abortions after six weeks
Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 hopeful, supports the abortion ban and has said he will sign it
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Earlier Thursday, there was chaos in the Capitol as protesters flooded the building.
Demonstrators were seen shouting and throwing handfuls of stickers and small pieces of paper down on lawmakers as they entered the House chamber.
The stickers provided information on how to receive abortion pills through mail, according to local reports.
Once DeSantis signs the bill it will give Florida one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
The state already has a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, which is being challenged in the Florida Supreme Court.
It’s unclear when there will be a ruling in that case.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on the passage in a statement Thursday, calling the bill ‘extreme and dangerous.’
‘The ban flies in the face of fundamental freedoms and is out of step with the views of the vast majority of the people of Florida and of all the United States,’ Jean-Pierre said.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) similarly blasted the abortion ban, in an attempt to tie DeSantis to former President Trump’s ‘MAGA base.’
‘This ban will be one of the strictest in the country and is the latest salvo of abortion extremism as 2024 Republican hopefuls work to out-MAGA each other – and remind America that Republican control would bring us closer to a nationwide abortion ban,’ the DNC statement continued.
During debate on the six-week ban, Democratic lawmakers proposed more than 50 amendments to the bill but also acknowledged the uphill battle they faced in the Republican-controlled state legislature.
But House Speaker Paul Renner, a Republican, spent the afternoon rushing through that process, giving each amendment about a minute of debate before calling a voice vote, declaring the amendment failed, and moving on to the next one.
Some observers in the gallery booed and shouted at his actions. ‘This is all just circus politics,’ one yelled.
Renner pushed back, warning observers that it is privilege to watch the proceedings and reminded them he can have the galleries emptied.
By noon those galleries were emptied due to disruptions.
The vote was conducted quickly after hours of debate, with 70 lawmakers voting for the six-week ban and 40 opposing it. There are 35 Democrats in the state House, meaning some Republicans joined them in opposition
House Speaker Paul Renner, a Republican, spent the afternoon rushing through the amendment process
Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat (speaking in pink) proposed several amendments that failed
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, proposed an amendment that would delay the enactment of the ban under the King Charles Clause.
The amendment would keep the state’s current law in effect until ’21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England living as of the date of this declaration’.
This ‘last survivor’ is one-year-old Princess Lilibet of Sussex, who lives in California.
Disney used the clause to circumvent DeSantis’ attempt to take control of its theme parks.
‘If it worked for Disney maybe it’ll work for me,’ Eskamani said.
The amendment failed.
She also proposed to rename the bill the ‘Forced Pregnancy Act.’
‘Members, this amendment renames the bill to the Forced Pregnancy Act, which is basically what it does,’ she said. ‘That’s the amendment.’
‘It’ll force people into pregnancy before they even realize they are pregnant,’ she added.
The amendment failed.
‘This is a devastating vote,’ Eskamani later said on the floor. ‘We might be the minority in this chamber, but we’re not the minority outside.’
The bill does have exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking up to 15 weeks of pregnancy.
There is an exception for the life of the mother if two physicians certify in writing that the woman will die if she continues the pregnancy.
House Rep. Allison Tant told a story about how her mother almost died in pregnancy while residing in rural North Carolina and the same outcome would happen to women in rural Florida if two physicians were needed to make the call of whether a pregnancy could be terminated.
The bill also allocates $25 million for anti-abortion non-medical clinics, essentially promoting pregnancy.
Florida only funds rape crisis centers $3 million per year.
More than a dozen states have restricted access to abortions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade
Florida’s gender and racial party divides were on full display as lawmakers debated the issue throughout the afternoon.
Female Democratic lawmakers spoke in opposition to the bill, getting some assistance from Black Democratic men. White male Republicans pushed to pass it.
‘I’m gonna say the silent part out loud right now, to all the mistresses of wealthy men in Florida, sis, do not take that trip,’ said state Rep. Ashley Gantt. ‘Have that baby OK?’
‘Make sure you deny that trip,’ she continued. ‘Make sure you get a headache or something or you’re just unavailable – put your phone on Do Not Disturb.’
Gantt said the legislation would impact the ‘have-nots’ more than the ‘haves’ in the Sunshine State.
Republican Rep. Shane Abbott, who has an adopted son, encouraged lawmakers to vote to pass the abortion ban.
‘It’s a third-degree felony to harm sea turtle eggs. It’s a third-degree felony to harm alligator eggs. So we’re willing to protect an unborn alligator and an unborn sea turtle, but we’re sitting here today debating whether or not it’s worth protecting an unborn human,’ he argued.
He claimed that almost 80,000 abortions that took place in Florida last year ‘were not health care related in any way.’
‘They were about convenience,’ he said. ‘They were about quality of life.’
Rep. Dianne Hart, a Democrat, recalled how as a high school student in 1971, before Roe v. Wade, one of her friends got pregnant.
‘She chose to take Quinine in hopes that she was going to terminate her pregnancy,’ Hart recalled. ‘Except she terminated her life.’
Hart warned that Florida was heading back to the ‘dark ages’ if the bill is passed.
Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson, another Democrat, said ‘this is about control – trying to control women.’
‘If they take this right from us, who’s to say that we don’t have the right to vote one day or we don’t have the right to go to work one day,’ Robinson said.
Democratic Rep. Christopher Benjamin argued that taking away a woman’s choice makes pregnancy a ‘sentence.’
‘It’s a punishment,’ he remarked.
Democratic Rep. Jervonte Edwards got a few laughs when he said on the floor: ‘The underlying truth is, we all love sex in here, whether with a condom or without – but the key to that is, as a man I cannot have a child.’
He pointed out that the male legislators wouldn’t care for a law, pushed by the women in the body, that would make ‘all men sterile.’
As the debate wound to a close, Republicans had three of their female lawmakers speak.
Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy explained that her anti-abortion beliefs stemmed from her own decision to have an abortion as an adult – when she ‘knew better’ – and later came to regret.
She argued that women seeking abortions are in that position ‘because they made an irresponsible choice.’
‘Who’s going to hear the voices of the unborn?’ she asked her colleagues.
Republican Rep. Jennifer Canady argued funding contained in the bill would help reluctant mothers.
Closing for the GOP, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka stood and said, ‘Members, today we have an opportunity to lead.’
‘We have the opportunity to lead the national debate about the importance of protecting life and giving every child the opportunity to be born and find his or her purpose,’ Persons-Mulicka said.
‘With your vote today we change the culture of abortion to a culture of life,’ she said, receiving applause from her Republican colleagues.
Once she concluded, tallying the vote took under a minute.
The Florida legislature currently has 119 members, so nine lawmakers abstained.
As of January 2023, 24 states have enacted restrictive bans or are in the process of doing so.
Twelve states are enforcing a near-total ban on abortion with very limited exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
In four states, laws prohibiting abortion after a specific point in pregnancy, which would have been unconstitutional under Roe, are in effect.
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