GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis left the door open to supporting a law banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block a Texas ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Texas is among a dozen mostly Republican-led states to ban the procedure once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, often at six weeks, Reuters noted.
"We’ve been able to do pro-life legislation," said DeSantis. "I’m pro-life. I welcome pro-life legislation. What they did in Texas was interesting," he said at a news conference in West Palm Beach. "I’ve always been somebody that really does support protections for life as best as we can do."
The South Florida Sun Sentinel noted he declined to say if he backs the same type of law in the Sunshine State.
"I haven’t been really able to look at enough about it," DeSantis said. "They’ve basically done this through a private right of action. And so, it’s a little bit different than how these debates have gone. We’ll have to look, I’m going to look more significantly at it," he said.
The Texas law allows private citizens to file a lawsuit against anyone suspected of facilitating an abortion — even those who take a patient to get an abortion, according to Axios.
And Republican Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson said: "The Texas law represents a new approach and the fact that the Supreme Court didn’t block it from taking effect is encouraging.
"As an adoptive child myself, it’s important to me that we do everything we can to promote adoption and prevent abortion; therefore, I think it’s worthwhile to take a look at the Texas law and see if there is more we can do here in Florida."
Florida Senate Democrat Leader Lauren Book blasted any attempt at an abortion ban in the state. "Any attempt to emulate the Texas abortion ban is an all-out assault on women’s rights," she said.