TALLAHASSEE (SNN TV) – Florida Republicans advance a six-week abortion ban in the state legislature. This was despite intense opposition from dozens of speakers.
It passed on a 13-5 party line vote with Democrats voting against the ban.
This means it passes its first stop in committee.
Most of the public comments were from people who opposed the bill, including one woman, Taylor Aguilar of Lakeland, who attacked a provision of the bill which requires a rape victim to produce a “restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation providing evidence” of the crime. She shared that she was raped years ago and wouldn’t have been able to produce a police report.
“When I was sexually assaulted, it started out as consensual sex, and the person I was having sex with removed the condom without my knowledge or permission,” Aguilar shared.
“Weeks went by, I thought it was really strange I hadn’t had my period in weeks. [I] put it off a couple of weeks more. By the time I got into the doctor, I was 10 weeks pregnant. I chose not to report my rape because I wanted to get as far away from that situation as possible and not relive, as the person before me said, a second rape.”
Aguilar said she got the choice to get an abortion because the restrictions being proposed weren’t in place when this happened to her.
