TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Republicans have rejected a move to create exemptions for rape, incest and human trafficking in their proposal (HB 5) to ban abortions after 15 weeks. A GOP-backed bill advanced Wednesday.
Florida's Senate Health Policy Committee, which is controlled by Republicans, blocked a proposed amendment from Democratic Sen. Lauren Book. The committee then passed the bill on a party-lines vote Wednesday.
“We have to give these survivors a little grace,” Book said before her amendment failed, the Associated Press reports. “If a girl or a woman does not want to carry a pregnancy to term because she did not consent to being raped, none of the members of this committee should be able to deny her a safe and legal abortion because she needed more time.”
Book took to Twitter to share her frustration with the Senate Health Policy Committee after the amendment was rejected.
"By refusing to allow exemptions for rape and incest, Republicans are effectively telling a 15-year-old who was raped that she is on the clock. Tell about your trauma on our time — or else! Where’s the basic human compassion???" Book wrote in a tweet.
Florida's proposal comes as Republicans in states across the country, including West Virginia and Mississippi, have introduced legislation to limit access to abortion, much of it coming as the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a major rollback of abortion rights — and a potential overruling of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
One of the bill sponsors, Republican Sen. Kelli Stargel, said the amendment allowing exemptions for rape, incest and human trafficking caused pregnancies would allow criminals to cover up their crimes.
"I don’t think allowing those individuals to continue to hide their crimes by forcing the abortions or allowing those abortions are going to solve that problem,” AP reports Stargel said.
The 15-week abortion ban proposal has exceptions for if the abortion is necessary to save a mother’s life, prevent serious injury to the mother or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality.
Abortion is legal in Florida up to 24 weeks of gestation. It is only allowed beyond that if the pregnancy threatens a woman's life and physical health.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
