(The Hill) — Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) voiced his support for a six-week abortion ban passed by the Florida legislature Thursday, saying that he would sign the bill if he was still governor of the state.
“Not true. I am 100% pro-life and if I was still governor, I would sign this bill,” Scott said in reply to a tweet Thursday that suggested he would not support the ban.
Florida’s GOP-controlled state House voted to approve a bill Thursday that would prohibit abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, sending it to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) desk for signature. DeSantis has signaled his support for more restrictive abortion measures after he signed a 15-week ban on the procedure last year. He is expected to sign the legislation.
The 15-week ban approved last year faces legal challenges in the state’s Supreme Court. Even if DeSantis signs the bill, the new ban would be contingent on how the court rules in that matter.
Scott had recently pushed back on the proposed six-week ban and suggested in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that the population largely supports a 15-week ban. He said that “most people” support 15 weeks with “all the exceptions,” including for rape, incest and life of the mother, and that the “state legislature ought to represent that.”
“That’s a tough issue for people. I mean, you have to be really compassionate about what people are going through,” he said in the interview last month.
The Florida House voted to approve the bill 10 days after the state Senate passed it. Prior to the legislation’s passage, Republicans in the state House voted down dozens of amendments filed by Democrats to water down the bill and delay it from being passed. Among the proposed amendments were one that would name the proposed law the “Forced Pregnancy Act” and a religious exemption to the ban.
The White House criticized the legislation on Thursday; White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the “extreme and dangerous” bill “flies in the face of fundamental freedoms and is out of step with the views of the vast majority of the people of Florida and of all the United States.”