Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned he does now not beef up criminalizing ladies who obtain abortions even after he signed a six-week abortion ban into regulation previous this 12 months that comes with language which may be interpreted as such.
“We don’t have any legal penalty,” DeSantis, who’s working for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, informed “CBS Night time Information” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell in an interview Tuesday. “The consequences are for the doctor.”
The regulation says “anyone who willfully plays or actively participates in a termination of being pregnant” in violation of the regulation would face prison fees. It prohibits abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, with the exception of in circumstances the place the lifetime of the mummy is in peril. It additionally lets in abortions as much as 15 weeks in circumstances of rape, incest or human trafficking.
Florida’s six-week ban has but to enter impact. The state’s present 15-week ban remains to be in position amid an ongoing criminal problem this is earlier than the state Very best Court docket.
DeSantis mentioned the language within the invoice is directed at suppliers.
“It’s not for the ladies,” he mentioned. “Now we have litigated this.”
“Is a girl now not actively taking part within the termination of her being pregnant?” O’Donnell requested.
“No,” he mentioned. “As a result of she’s now not a scientific practitioner.”
DeSantis mentioned he’s “completely now not” in want of criminalizing ladies and that it “is not going to occur in Florida.”
DeSantis stated that Florida’s abortion charges are on the upward push as within reach states enact stricter regulations.
“We’ve turn into, in opposition to our needs, a vacation spot,” he mentioned, including that if the six-week ban is authorized to enter impact it “would almost definitely forestall the entire abortion tourism factor.”
“We do not wish to be an abortion tourism vacation spot,” he mentioned.
He declined to mention whether or not he would beef up a countrywide ban.
“I beef up pro-life insurance policies,” he mentioned. “I’m going to be a pro-life president. However on the identical time, I have were given to chart the path and be truthful with other people about, OK, how do you advance the ball like we did in Florida? And the way in which you do this is actually backside up.”