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FLORIDA HAS SIGNED into law a 15-week abortion ban, becoming the latest US state to further restrict reproductive rights in a nationwide push by conservatives.
Tighter restrictions in states including Texas and Idaho come as the Supreme Court looks poised to re-examine the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that cemented a woman’s right to abortion.
The court is now dominated by conservatives following the nomination of three justices by former president Donald Trump.
“We are here today to defend those who can’t defend themselves,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said as he signed the law which reduced the abortion limit from 24 to 15 weeks.
“This will represent the most significant protection for life that’s been enacted in this state in a generation,” DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, added.
Right-wing politicians have launched an assault on abortion, with Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, fighting back to protect access to the procedure.
The Florida law, which comes into force on 1 July, includes exemptions if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality, but not in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking.
“This abortion ban is an attack on our most fundamental freedoms — the right to control our own bodies, our own futures,” said Stephanie Fraim of Planned Parenthood.
A recent bill passed in Idaho allows families of women who have had abortions – and the father of the fetus – to sue providers, taking enforcement out of the hands of the state, in a move modeled on a controversial new Texas law.
Other bills are in the works in Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, with California, Washington state and Vermont taking an opposing stance and promoting pro-choice abortion rights.
Earlier this week, a Texas prosecutor dropped charges against a woman who had been arrested days earlier for having an abortion, in a case that has drawn national indignation.
Lizelle Herrera (26) was arrested on 7 April, for “intentionally and knowingly [causing] the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” according to police in the southern US state.
She was later released on a $500,000 (€460,280) bond before a Texas district attorney finally moved to drop the charges.
“In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” prosecutor Gocha Allen Ramirez said in a statement.
Nevertheless, Ramirez said, local law enforcement was justified in investigating the case after a hospital reported Herrera.
“To ignore the incident would have been a dereliction of their duty,” he said.
It is not clear whether a Texas law passed in September banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy was originally considered as the basis for Herrera’s arrest.
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It’s funny that so many come here to say this is terrible, and yet they lowered the cut off to 15 weeks which is still higher than in Ireland by 3 weeks. 24 weeks is 6 months gestation, 2 more weeks and that foetus would have “survival without impairment rate of 75.6%”. Unlimited abortion is immoral. Surely when it gets to the stage where the baby has a good chance of survival outside the womb the bodily autonomy argument utterly collapses.
@v39e84kK: so at 26 weeks the foetus would have 75% chance of survival? Do you know what the survival rate at 15 weeks v 24 weeks is?
There is no substantive difference, prior to 24 weeks is considered unsurvivable, its purely applying conservative values onto a pregnant woman and that’s what at issue, the removal of rights which are actually enshrined in the constitution of the country.
The Irish law has been set at 12 weeks since it was enacted, quite a different story
@Colm O’ Shea: Roe V Wade is not actually the US constitution, it’s a supreme court decision. Since RvW the implementation of a right to abortion has been subject to state discretion, hence why this and every other state law concerning the where, when etc of abortion is completely legal. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the survival rate for 24 weeker babies is 56.6%. Hardly “unsurvivable”. The point being that as medical science advances we ought to reconsider the limits of abortion rights. I believe in the bodily autonomy argument for abortion rights, to an extent. I do not believe a woman or anyone ought to have the right to murder babies who can survive outside the womb. That just doesn’t make sense to me, is that “conservative”, If it is sign me up I guess.
@Colm O’ Shea:
What are the chances of a 26 week old baby surviving?
Image result for baby survival chances at 26 weeks
Babies born at 26 weeks were found to have a survival rate of 89 percent in the 2016 analysis and 86 percent in the 2016 cohort study.29 May 20
https://www.healthline.com/health/baby/premature-baby-survival-rate
@v39e84kK: it’s a supreme court decision that found that a women’s right to choose was protected by the 14th amendment. Therefore it is a constitutional protection.
Read into it further and the 24th week is where the balance shifts after 22 weeks there is a 10% chance of survival before that nearly 0% survival rate.
There is a legitimate argument to be made which is what you are making about abortion and survivability and in general I would agree with you but this is not the case here, if they were looking at the science they would be looking to push the limit back to 21/22 weeks but they are looking at 15 weeks. The is the conservative bent that I am talking about
@Colm O’ Shea: You’ll note I did not defend the movement, just find it bizarre that so many come on here and say it is terrible, despite ours being 12 weeks.
Your explanation of RvW is lacking, it doesn’t provide for an absolute right. There were always exceptions related to the 3 trimesters. This was later revised to focus on foetal viability. On the other side of the “aisle” as they say in the USA there are those looking to move further along up to 30 weeks, 35 weeks etc. For example Northam’s terrifying comments that “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” regarding abortion up to birth. If you are looking for the craziest people in US politics, you’ll find them doing that kind of thing. Colorado also has brought in similar laws allowing the killing of viable human beings.
Given that this law in Florida “includes exemptions if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality” 15 weeks seems a fairly reasonable amount of time for a woman to decide whether or not to continue the pregnancy.
@v39e84kK: but the problem, for me anyway, is there act that there is no change for rape, incest or human trafficking!!
@v39e84kK: a bunch of cells with no consciousness is not a baby. It’s a fetus. You should post your details so you can maybe take some unwanted born babies to prevent their horrendous murder by their evil mothers. You’d be a real warrior then of instead of a keyboard one.
@Andy O’B: A woman in those situations could avail of an abortion up to 15 weeks under this law.
@Ruby Soho: Very obvious you didn’t read my points.
@Ruby Soho: bit of Freudian slip that you believe one can be a mother to a “bunch of cells”.
@Colm O’ Shea: fun fact about roe v wade, the woman in question later admitted making up the story that the case was based on & became a pro life advocate.
@Seamus Mac: Best advocate money could buy
Another fun fact about the woman in question. She confessed on her deathbed to being paid to speak against abortion by the pro life lobby.
eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/05/21/aka-jane-roe-fx-norma-mccorvey-paid-speak-against-abortion/5236476002/
“I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they put me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. And that’s what I’d say,” she says in the documentary. “I did it well, too. I am a good actress. Of course I’m not acting now.”
McCorvey goes on to say that she still supported abortion rights.
“If a young woman wants to have an abortion, fine! You know, that’s no skin off my ass. You know that’s why they call it choice. It’s your choice.”
She adds, “Roe vs. Wade helped save women’s lives.”
One fvked up society is the United states of America.
@Paul Gorry: they are going backwards.
@Paul Gorry: I think most people would agree that aborting a baby six months into a pregnancy is barbaric.
@Seamus Mac: Not barbaric but a decision only to be taken in extreme circumstances nad one that will scar both the woman, those close to her and the medical staff.
I have never met anyone involved in an abortion who has not been permanently marked.
@Gordon Davies: funny that, I’ve never met any of the kids involved in an abortion either. Their scars must have been more permanent and terminal. Wonder why they chose to go through with it?
I never see any party, or regular newspaper articles, fight for reproductive restrctions on men. It’s always forced on women.
@Dean: Why don’t you explain to the class, how that would work exactly?
@Dean: You see this is because only women can have children. It’s called Biology.
@Eoin Roche: bobbit jobs lol
@Anna Carr: Hahaha Anna very good.
@Eoin Roche:
Vasectomy Laws, would prevent every unplanned pregnancy in the world. It’s also reversible. And you also can freeze sperm.
Women cannot have children without men. Women cannot get pregnant on their own. Biology.
@Dean: There is no way anyone could take you serious in the real world.
@Dean: So are you advocating for women to sterilise themselves too?
@Dean: So a forced sterilisation of sorts, to prevent what, moral thought crimes? Oh boy did you miss your calling around 1939.
@Dean: embarrassed for your whataboutery
How annoying is that photograph… ?! Eugh.
@Dearbhla O Reilly: well said Dearbhla the smugness is stomach churning.
It’s called a foetus when it’s unwanted but called a baby when it is. I don’t think it’s a progressive society when we are talking about terminating a pregnancy at 6 months.
It’s a bit mad the way America were quite progressive and ahead of the curve with Roe vs Wade back in the 1970s but have since gone full circle with regressive moves such as this.
Couple that with their increasingly loose gun laws (concealed carry etc), it’s clear they’re going backwards in several areas.
You would think that once progress is made that it is here to stay, but apparently not.
I wonder if Obergefell vs Hodges (same sex marriage) is on borrowed time before reversal as well.
Funny how people who wanted to lockdown the world to save lives have no issue with ending life before it starts.
@Verners Tess: yes it’s almost as if the two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
@Katie Craig: Enlighten me please?
Horrific. But sadly not surprising from Florida.
Oh wait. Another Republican State decides against women’s individual rights. Fabulous
Blessed be the fruit loops.
Folks like Ron DeSantis exist to remind us how lucky we are that a) while we have extremely, extremely flawed politicians none of our lot are as bad as this guy and b) we are so lucky that major decisions tend to go the route of referendums as opposed to the people in power just deciding amongst themselves weather to progress or devolve as a society in this country.
Trump knows what’s best for American women. ☹️
They use photos like that on purpose so it looks holier than thou. They don’t use normal Joes because it would upset the myth that only Christian fundamentalists are anti.
@Anna Carr: hence only white people Anna.
Florida….home of the real nutjobs
Abortion bans only affect the poorest in society. Abortion bans will not affect people with money as they can always pay and afford to travel. Abortion bans will only result in more unsafe abortions.
It will get more contentious in future with children being assisted with technology to stay alive from say 18 weeks outside womb.
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