Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature passed a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, a proposal backed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an anticipated presidential run.

DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law. Florida currently bans abortions after 15 weeks.

A six-week ban would give DeSantis a major political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy that builds on his national brand as a conservative standard-bearer.

The policy would also have wider implications for access to abortion in the South in the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade was overturned and decisions on abortion access were left to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with Georgia banning the procedure afterward

fetus

heart activity can be detected, which takes about six weeks.

We have the opportunity to lead the national debate on the importance of protecting life and giving every child the chance to be born and find his or her purpose,” said Republican Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka van Fort Myers, who is the bill in the House.

Court reserves access to abortion medicine, but only for 7 weeks and not by mail

Democrats and abortion rights groups have criticized Florida’s legislation as extreme because many women don’t realize they are pregnant until after six weeks.

The bill contains some exceptions, including to save the woman’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be allowed up to 15 weeks gestation, provided a woman has documentation, such as a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has called the rape and incest provisions sensitive.

Drugs used in drug-induced abortions, which make up the majority of abortions performed nationally, may only be dispensed in person or by a physician under Florida law. Separately, nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone is being challenged in court.

Florida’s six-week ban would only go into effect if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge before the state’s Supreme Court, which is overseen by conservatives.

“I can’t think of a bill that will provide more protection to more people who are more vulnerable than this piece of legislation,” said Republican Rep. Mike Beltran.

from Lithia

who said the account exceptions and six-week timeframe represented a compromise.

Abortion bans are popular among some religious conservatives who are part of the GOP voting base, but the issue has motivated many others to vote for Democrats. Republicans have suffered defeats in recent weeks and months in elections over access to abortion in states such as Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Have we learned nothing?” Fentrice Driskell, Democratic Minority Leader in the Hillsborough House, said of recent elections in other states. “Are we not listening to our constituents and to the people of Florida and what they are asking for?

DeSantis, who often puts himself on the front lines of culture war issues, has said he supports the six-week ban, but has come across as unusually lukewarm on the bill. He has often said, “We applaud pro-life legislation,” when asked about the policy.

Horrifying Stories From Women Pursued by the LAPD’s Abortion Team for Roe vs. Wade

DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential candidacy after the

legislative branch

the session ends in May, with his White House potential guided in part by the conservative policies approved this year by the Republican supermajority in the Statehouse.

Democrats, without power at any level of state government, have mostly turned to stagnation tactics and protests to oppose the bill, which passed easily through both chambers on largely partisan votes. The Senate approved it last week, the House of Representatives did so on Thursday.

A Democratic senator and Florida Democratic Party chairwoman were arrested and charged with trespassing during a protest in Tallahassee against the six-week ban. In a last-ditch effort to delay the passage of the bill in the House on Thursday, Democrats introduced dozens of amendments to the bill, all of which were rejected by Republicans.

Women’s health and their personal right to choose is being stolen,” Democratic Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson said

from Miami Gardens

. “So I ask, is Florida really a free state?”