Photo: Getty Images Europe
A South Florida Democrat still reeling over the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade is hoping Florida's new abortion law gets blocked by a Tallahassee judge.
"It's going to harm a lot of people because there are gonna be people who don't know they're pregnant after, or sometimes for many different reasons a pregnant person doesn't make a decision in the first 15 weeks whether or not to keep a fetus."
West Palm Beach Congresswoman Lois Frankel says if the law that would put an end to most abortions after 15 weeks is allowed to go into effect, it would just be the beginning.
"This legislature will further restrict abortion rights and it would not surprise me if this legislature tries to ban abortion altogether."
There's been no indication that any Florida lawmakers are considering a total ban, even after the Roe v. Wade decision.
With pundits expecting a so-called "red wave" in November, might the uproar from Democrats over the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade stave that off?
"Yes. Absolutely. All you've gotta do is look and see what's happened across the country with the rallies. I'll tell you when I go out that's all people want to talk about right now. They're furious."
Frankel is furious too.
"I mean really? We're going to have a country where we force pregnancy? The only free democratic country in the world that does that, force people to bear children...really?"
It should be noted that the Roe v. Wade ruling did not do anything to ban abortions anywhere. It kicked the decision back to the states, where it was before the landmark decision was made back in 1973.
There are a number of states that had "trigger laws" in place, which were aimed at putting into effect tighter restrictions on abortion once Friday's ruling came down. Florida is not one of those states and if the new law banning most abortions after 15 weeks is not blocked by a judge, it goes into effect this Friday, July 1. There are no current plans to go further with abortion restrictions in our state at this time.
Frankel co-sponsored the Women's Health Protection Act last fall, which passed in the U.S. House. It would prevent states from restricting abortions. But the Senate failed to move it forward.
"The Senate has pretty archaic rules which is they require 60 votes to pass anything."
She hopes that Senate Democrats overturn the filibuster and take up the bill again.