15-week abortion ban passes first test in Florida Legislature
https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/15-week-abortion-ban-bill-clears-florida-house-subcommittee/amp/
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) Floridas legislative session continues its second week with movement on one of multiple abortion ban bills currently working their way through the legislature.
The Republican-proposed 15-week abortion ban, House Bill 5, passed its first House committee review on a 12-6 vote, with the yeas and nays voting along predictable party lines. In the Professions & Public Health Subcommittee, HB 5 was approved. The bill now heads to its next two hearings in the Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee and Health & Human Services Committee.
Its companion bill in the Senate, SB 146, was proposed by Fla. Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland) and submitted to the legislature on January 11. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill seek to shorten the states legal window to seek out and receive an abortion, as well as defining and codifying what the different types of recognized abortions are.
Under the law, the state would add definitions for a medical abortion to mean abortions caused by a pharmaceutical drugs, as well as the more commonly-referenced surgical abortion.