Because Ron DeSantis plays his cards close to the vest, and because Florida is generally less pro-life than a lot of other red states, there has been some speculation over how DeSantis — who may be eyeing a presidential run — would approach abortion in the aftermath of Dobbs.
Would he go any further than Florida’s 15-week ban, or would he avoid the issue? Would he sign a law that would guarantee a legal challenge, in order to give the Republican-dominated Florida Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn its own state version of Roe v. Wade? We now have at least a partial answer:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a new interview today that he is “ready to sign” a heartbeat bill to protect babies from abortions. But first, the Florida legislature needs to pass such an abortion ban and get it to his desk. During a press conference in Fort Lauderdale Thursday, a reporter asked DeSantis if he would “take the lead” on the heartbeat bill, which would ban abortions starting at 6 weeks when an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable on a sonogram. “I’m willing to sign great life legislation. That’s what I’ve always said I would do,” DeSantis said in response. DeSantis also defended the right to life of unborn children saying that with abortion “another life is at stake.” “At the end of the day, government was instituted for certain reasons. To protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” DeSantis said.
Given DeSantis’s powerful influence over his state’s legislature, it seems unlikely that he would say this if he did not expect such a bill to be introduced and be likely to pass with his support. It is encouraging to see the most prominent elected official in the party signaling that he is not backing away from protecting innocent life.