Fla. Republicans ditch Texas-style abortion law for what they call a ‘generous’ 15-week ban, drawing criticism from all sides

By Caroline Kitchener

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It took just one day after Texas enacted its controversial “heartbeat bill,” banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, for a top Florida Republican to endorse passing the same law in his state — with the leader of the state Senate declaring that a copycat measure was “something we’re already working on.”

But by the time the measure was introduced in September, drawing national headlines as the first Texas copycat ban to emerge nationwide, Florida GOP leaders effectively shrugged it off.

Even Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising hero on the right for his unapologetic opposition to coronavirus restrictions, said he hadn’t read enough about the Texas ban to comment. His staff went further. Pointing to the novel enforcement mechanism that allowed citizen watchdogs to sue anyone involved in facilitating abortion access after the legal limit, they said DeSantis “didn’t want to turn private citizens against each other.”

Four months later, Florida Republicans have coalesced around a bill they have come to describe as “very reasonable” and “generous” — a 15-week ban modeled after the Mississippi law before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case that will determine the future of Roe v. Wade. It’s an approach, they say, that would prevent only a fraction of the more than 70,000 abortions performed in Florida each year, the vast majority of which take place in the first trimester.

“We’re not banning anything. We’re not being mean,” said state Sen. Kelli Stargel, a Republican from central Florida and a chief sponsor of the Mississippi-style bill that was approved by a committee last week and is expected to win easy passage before the legislative session ends in March. “We’re not taking away a woman’s opportunity.”

The momentum behind the 15-week ban in Florida offers a glimpse into what activists on both sides say is an emerging strategy in some GOP-led legislatures to acclimate voters to a post-Roe world. The objective, these activists say, is to portray the Mississippi-style ban as a sensible compromise — even though a 15-week ban represents a dramatic rollback of the standard established by Roe, which protects the right to abortion until a fetus is viable outside the womb, around 22 to 24 weeks. Fifteen-week bans have been introduced recently in West Virginia and Arizona, and just like in Florida, both are moving swiftly through the legislature, even as Texas-style laws in other states have stalled.

Abortion rights groups are sounding the alarm about the impact a 15-week ban would have in Florida. The state’s current law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy is among the most lenient in the Southeast, making it a reliable access point in the region.

“If they drop a bill so extreme and so crazy that it dominates the news for months, when they drop a 15-week ban, it does not look as extreme,” said Annie Filkowski, policy director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. “It looks like a compromise.”

The approach has introduced a surprising dynamic for Florida Republicans, who have long dominated the state capital, prompting rare denunciations of DeSantis from some corners of the party base.

One prominent antiabortion lobbyist, Andrew Shirvell, executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn, has publicly called on DeSantis to join fellow GOP Govs. Kristi L. Noem of South Dakota and Greg Abbott of Texas to back stricter bans. To date, the strongest abortion law signed by DeSantis, who is up for reelection this year and widely seen as a potential presidential candidate, is a 2020 measure requiring parental consent.

“We’ve had pro-life majorities in our legislature for close to 30 years and a Republican governor for decades. There is really little excuse for this,” Shirvell said. “If you believe that abortion is murder, then you need to act like it.”

DeSantis’s office did not respond to a request for comment. At a news conference on Jan. 12, he said he was “supportive” of a 15-week ban.

“I think that’s very reasonable, and I think that’s very consistent with, you know, being supportive of protecting life,” he said.

In the Florida House, Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy said 15 weeks was a “long time.”

“That’s, to me, because I believe life begins at conception, that’s, that’s — generous,”

Republican-led stares rush to pass anti-abortion bill before Supreme Court rules on Roe