Florida House Approves A Ban On Most Abortions After 15 Weeks

- Advocates for bodily autonomy march to the Florida Capitol to protest a bill before the Florida legislature to limit abortions on Feb. 16, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla.
_______
- NPR, Feb. 17, 2022. Ed.

Florida is preparing to pass a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, including in cases of incest or rape. The state appears poised to join others, including Texas, with ultra restrictive abortion laws as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the future of Roe v. Wade. Similar abortion measures also passed this week in West Virginia's House and the Arizona Senate.

The law in Florida is modeled after a Mississippi abortion law that is now being considered by the Supreme Court — their decision could affect abortion access nationwide. NPR's Greg Allen joined Morning Edition with the latest on how the bill would affect Floridians. - Listen here.

The bill that passed Fla.'s House this week on a mostly party-line vote includes narrow exceptions for fetal abnormalities and to protect the life of the pregnant person. Like Mississippi's law, Florida's bill doesn't include exceptions for rape or incest. Only about 3.5 % of abortions in Florida happen after 15 weeks, but that means thousands of pregnancies, Allen reports. Fla. currently allows abortions until 24 weeks of pregnancy, but if the bill becomes law, that limit would drop to 15 for most abortions.

Dr. Samantha Deans, an assoc. medical director with Planned Parenthood in Fla., says most fetal anomalies aren't detected by 15 weeks. "You cannot perform an amniocentesis until the second trimester & generally speaking, we don't perform an amniocentesis until 16 to 20 weeks," Deans says. "That's just a medical fact." Under the bill, if a fetal abnormality is discovered after 15 weeks, 2 doctors would need to certify the baby wouldn't survive long after birth before an abortion would be allowed.... https://www.npr.org/2022/02/17/1081450530/florida-house-abortion-ban
_______
- Also: (2 hrs ago) Abortion-rights activists banned from Fla. House after midnight protest, Miami Herald, Feb. 17, '22,
https://www.newsbug.info/news/nation/abortion-rights-activists-banned-from-florida-house-after-midnight-protest/article_32935713-a518-5e88-b6d6-318a8de59128.html