Florida governor Ron DeSantis signs six week abortion ban bill
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill which would prevent women from getting an abortion after six weeks.
The ban will take effect only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge currently before the Supreme Court.
It follows moves by a number of other southern states to restrict the procedure, after the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade June last year.
So far, the states currently enforcing total bans on abortions are, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
Georgia has also enforced a law which restricts pregnant women from getting an abortion at around six weeks.
Pic: AP
The abortion ban will prevent around four million women in Florida from accessing abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy.
However, six weeks is before many women may even know they are pregnant.
The impact
The Turnaway Study included telephone interviews with 956 women who sought an abortion in the first trimester or just over or under the gestational limit of one of 30 abortion facilities across the US, and in-depth interviews with 31 women who had completed five years of surveys.
Researchers found women seeking an abortion in the second trimester recognised their pregnancy more than eight-weeks after their last menstrual period.
More than one in five realised they were pregnant after 20 weeks.
Democrats and abortion-rights groups have criticised Florida’s proposal as extreme.
The move has been seen as having the potential to give DeSantis a key political victory among some Republican voters as he prepares to launch his bid to become Republican presidential candidate for 2024.
In a statement White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the ban will impact nearly 15 million women of reproductive age who currently live in abortion banning states, women and girls who “have previously relied on travel to Florida as an option to access care.”
Exemptions
The bill has some exemptions, including allowing a termination to save a woman’s life.
Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be allowed until 15 weeks of pregnancy, provided a woman has documentation such as a restraining order or police report.
DeSantis has called the rape and incest provisions sensible.
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Backing the bill
Republican House representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka said: “We have the opportunity to lead the national debate about the importance of protecting life and giving every child the opportunity to be born and find his or her purpose.”
State representatives Jennifer Canady, left, and Jenna Persons-Mulicka Pic: AP
Mike Beltran, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, said the bill’s exceptions and its six week timeframe represents a compromise.
He added: “I can’t think of any bill that’s going to provide more protections to more people who are more vulnerable than this piece of legislation.”
On Thursday, a federal court ruled that abortion pill mifepristone will remain available in the US for the time being, but its distribution will be restricted.
This comes after District Judge Matthew J Kacsmaryk, a Trump administration appointee in Texas signed an injunction directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to halt its approval.
‘Americans demand the freedom to make their own decisions’
Ms Jean-Pierre said following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade “the message has been clear.”
“Americans demand the freedom to make their own decisions about their own bodies without government interference,” she added.
“Despite this, Republican elected officials continue their work to dismantle our fundamental freedoms, including through attempts to ban abortion nationwide.”
“President Biden and his Administration stand with women and physicians-and we will continue to fight to protect access to abortion and defend reproductive rights.”
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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