The Florida state Senate on Monday passed a bill that would ban most abortions after six weeks into a pregnancy.
The 6-week bill, called the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” passed by a 26-13 vote one year after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a 15-week ban into law.
Along with the 6-week deadline, the new bill would impose restrictions on telehealth abortions and medication abortion. Pregnant people facing life-threatening harm as well as victims of rape, incest and human trafficking, would be exempt from the new ban.
Amid the vote 11 people were arrested and charged with trespassing after a warning, according to Tallahassee police. They reportedly included Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried and Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D).
Following the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v Wade and 50 years of the Constitutional right to abortion, roughly half of all U.S. states have banned abortion or are likely to do so, including 12 which are imposing a near-total ban, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates reproductive health.
