TAMPA, Fla. — Florida’s new and more restrictive abortion law takes effect on Wednesday, outlawing the procedure beyond six weeks of pregnancy with limited exceptions.
Governor Ron DeSantis says the state of Florida, in his opinion, has got it right.
In Tampa, on the eve of the new law taking effect, he brushed off assertions from the Biden administration that the new restrictions are putting Florida back in play politically this November.
DeSantis said he agrees with the Supreme Court providing protections for a baby that has a detectable heartbeat, but many see the law as too restrictive.
Last week, President Biden visited Tampa making the issue the center of a campaign stop.
On the day Florida’s more restrictive law takes effect, Vice President Kamala Harris be in Jacksonville also saying the abortion issue has put Florida back in play politically, especially with a ballot amendment drawing voters to the polls — that if passed — would make a woman’s right to choose a constitutional right in Florida.
“The court dropped the ball because they're really supposed to be a guard on that,” DeSantis said of the ballot issue, “But the reality is now voters are going to be presented. And if they know what this actually means that it will be in trouble.”
State figures show this past year thousands of women travelled to Florida to seek an abortion as laws in their own states became more restrictive.
Once the law is in effect, women in Florida who are more than six weeks pregnant will now have to travel as far as Virginia to legally obtain the procedure beyond that time frame.