Florida becomes 1st state to try to mirror Texas fetal 'heartbeat' abortion law

A Florida Republican lawmaker has filed a bill that would ban abortions after six to eight weeks and allow members of the community to sue doctors for terminating pregnancies in what may be the first effort to mirror a similar new law in Texas.

The bill by state Rep. Webster Barnaby would ban abortions after regular cardiac contractions are detected in an embryo, known as a fetal heartbeat even though the heart has not yet developed, about six to eight weeks into pregnancy. That is before many women know they are pregnant.

The bill was immediately condemned by proponents of reproductive rights.

"It's a FL version of TX's bill and it's disgusting," Florida state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, a Democrat, posted on Twitter.

Helene Krasnoff, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's vice president for public policy litigation and law, said the Florida bill was the first such legislation she had seen filed since Texas' "Heartbeat Act" became law.

The Texas law and the Florida bill are the latest in a decades-long string of efforts by Republican officials to limit or ban abortion in conservative states.

The right to abortion was established in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, but abortion-rights advocates fear it could be overturned when the court, now with a 6-3 conservative majority, hears a bid by Mississippi or other states to overturn that decision.