Ron DeSantis signs bill banning abortions in Florida after 15 weeks

On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 5 into law, which bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The "Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality Act" provides exceptions for cases where the mother is at risk of death or "irreversible physical impairment," or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality.

The bill requires two physicians to certify that such requirements were met if an abortion is performed after 15 weeks.

Additionally, the bill also looks to help youth, adults, and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant stop smoking, would create "fetal and infant mortality review committees," and creates the requirement that hospitals that perform birthing services shall participate in at least "two quality improvement initiatives developed in collaboration with the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaboration within the University of South Florida College of Public Health."

According to Fox 13, DeSantis signed the bill in Nacion de Fe, a church in Kissimmee.

"We are here today to protect life. We are here to defend those who can’t defend themselves," DeSantis said at the beginning of his press conference. "It’s a statement of our values that every life is important."

"If you look what's going on in certain segments of our society, particularly amongst people who are affiliated with the far left of our political spectrum, of course, that's over represented in places like Hollywood, in the media, and obviously, in one of our major political parties, but they are now taking the position that babies can be aborted up to the ninth month," said DeSantis.

"Literally, you can go back, for your parents and those are some of the most significant experiences of my life to hold your child for the very first time, what they would say is, parent holding that child, if you just go back a day or two, then you would have been able to snuff the child out entirely? That is just fundamentally wrong, that is infanticide, and that has no place," he said.

In a press release from DeSantis’ office, they said that states that "HB 5 represent the most significant protections for life in Florida’s modern history."

The bill comes as a number of states have passed legislation shortening the timeline in which a woman can terminate her pregnancy.

It also comes ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether a similar Mississippi law restricting abortions is constitutional, a ruling that could be seen as a challenge to the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.

One Florida state representative, Will Robinson, said he would like to see Florida join with Mississippi in the Supreme Court abortion case.

"I disagree with some of my colleagues. That actually, if this bill becomes law, I want to see Florida join Mississippi and the Dobbs (Mississippi) decision to allow the Supreme Court to readdress, in my view, the arbitrary viability standard in Roe," Robinson said, according to Fox 13.