Early Thursday the Florida House of Representatives voted to pass a ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
The ban was passed after hours of debate between Democrats who said it will impose an unnecessary burden on women and Republicans who argued it will protect the unborn.
Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy, who has previously had an abortion and “regretted it everyday since,” said “This is the right to life and to give up life is unconscionable to me”.
The U.S. Supreme Court indicated it would uphold a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks. Roe v. Wade is also facing a possible overturn.
GOP lawmakers in Arizona and West Virginia have created their own 15-week abortion bans and other states have followed in Texas’ footsteps of banning abortions after six weeks.
Florida’s bill has exceptions such as saving the mother’s life, preventing serious injury to the mother, or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality.
Near the end of the debates, a group of activists in the House gallery started chanting, “my body, my choice”. The chamber was forced to stop activity before voting on the bill.
It will now move to the Senate, which is Republican-controlled, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has already suggested his support for the bill. If enacted, it will take effect July 1.