Abortion advocates believe Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is putting politics over the health of pregnant women following the official passage of a controversial abortion ban legislation.
On Thursday, DeSantis signed the Heartbeat Protection Act into law, which bans most abortions after six weeks of gestation.
The statute has some exceptions and permits abortions for women who face life-threatening complications during pregnancy and permits abortions up to 15 weeks for women who are victims of human trafficking, incest or rape, as theGrio previously reported.
The Republican governor took to Twitter shortly after signing the bill and said the act “expands pro-life protections and devotes resources to help young mothers and families.”
However, advocates like Kara Gross, legislative director for the ACLU, are calling the ban “extreme.”
“It is an extreme abortion ban and bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, six weeks from the date of an individual’s last menstrual period before many people even know that they are pregnant,” Gross told theGrio.
The average woman becomes aware that she is pregnant a little after five weeks into the pregnancy; however, if other factors come into play, she may not be aware until several weeks later, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Gross also said that this legislation would especially impact Black women.
“This will disproportionately harm Black and brown individuals, people who have fewer resources, and those who live in more rural communities,” she said.
Gross previously told theGrio that this bill will “force people to have pregnancies against their will.” This will have a greater impact on Black women because the “maternal mortality rate is three times higher for Black women than it is for white women” in Florida.
In a public statement, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-FL, said that “DeSantis and…
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