Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared in Kissimmee on Wednesday to sign into law House Bill 5, which bans abortions after the 15-week mark of pregnancy that the state Legislature passed during the recent session.
He was at Nacion de Fe Church on West U.S. 192 with a message the bill “defends those who can’t defend themselves.”
“We’re here to protect life. This bill protects the life of unborn children,” he said of the bill that’s officially titled the, “Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality” bill.
The law goes into affect July 1.
While the bill-turned-law doesn’t have provisions for cases of rape or human trafficking, it does exclude where abortion is necessary to the health or to prevent serious injury to the mother.
“Babies have beating hearts, they can taste, they can move and feel,” DeSantis said. “Those in the far left have taken a position that babies can be aborted up to the ninth month,” he said, also noting they treat late-aborted fetuses “like trash.”
“What we’re doing here, we’re saying we will not let that happen in the state of Florida,” he said.
House of Representatives Speaker Chris Sprowls also attended Thursday and spoke of what he called the “devastating consequences of abortion.”
“Every child has the right to life. Life is a gift from God,” he said. “Our governor championed the right to life, and to be born into a family that loves them.”
The bill also provides for the review of infant mortality cases and appropriates funds for review committees for them.
The signing sparked immediate reaction from women’s health rights groups, who said many women don’t know they are pregnant before 15 weeks in, and called HB5 “a disgusting assault on women.”
“Gov. DeSantis brags about Florida being the ‘freest state’ in the nation, and yet today he signed a bill to strip away the freedoms of women. There is no such thing as a ‘reasonable’ or ‘generous’ abortion ban, as many Republican politicians want you to believe,”(D-Orlando), who represented Planned Parenthood in our area prior to winning election to Tallahassee. “Instead, HB5 is a part of a national agenda to completely ban abortion and contraception. Despite these extreme attacks we will not falter or lose hope — the people of Florida need us to fight back and that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
Part of Sprowls comment also spoke to House Bill 7065, which DeSantis also mentioned Thursday. That bill will provide resources for educational and mentorship programs to help children, fathers and families through state agencies like the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF), which he said is a way of “Promoting fatherhood in Florida.
“We want fathers to be present and take responsibility for the upbringing of their kids,’ he said during his visit. “Broken families are increasing across all ethnic groups.
“Sure, when you’re married before you have kids, you can go do what you want, and parenthood changes that. But it’s a responsibility I wouldn’t trade for the world,” said the father of three children under five years old.
The bill would also increase funding and benefits for foster parents.
