TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (WSVN) - Another busy week in Tallahassee kicked off Monday, as a key vote moved a controversial and restrictive abortion bill closer to becoming law.
The fate of Florida’s abortion bill rests now in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate, but Democratic lawmakers have vowed to continue the legislative battle.
The Republican-controlled Florida Senate Committee on Appropriations shot down four amendments brought on by their Democratic counterparts on a 15-week ban on abortions.
The bill has now moved forward unchanged in the Senate and is currently one full Florida Senate vote away from reaching Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.
It includes no exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
The only exclusions are if a mother’s life is in danger or the fetus has fatal abnormalities, and both exceptions have to be approved by two doctors.
A sister bill already passed through the Florida House of Representatives last week, after six hours of debate.
Democrats on the committee made a last-ditch effort to change the bill on Monday with no success.
“It is dangerous to think that there are people who are fans, or like the idea of an abortion. I don’t,” said State Sen. Jason W.B. Pizzo, a Democrat from Miami-Dade County.
“I think, if you look back to Roe v. Wade, we have come a long way from the 1970s,” said State Sen. Kelli Stargel, chair of the Florida Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Another controversial bill that made its way through the legislature, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, targets discussion of LGBTQ+ subject matter in some primary school grades.
Florida State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith from Orlando, who is openly gay, blasted one of the latest amendments he said would put LGBTQ youth in danger.
The amendment text stated that schools would have to report to the parents if a child comes out to anyone at the school, possibly and unwittingly outing the child to their parents.
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