TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the effects of the state’s heartbeat abortion law, which prohibits abortion after six weeks’ gestation. Newly released data from the state Agency for Healthcare Administration show reported abortions dropped 28 percent last year compared to 2023.
“We’ve been able to save lives … and that matters to a lot of people,” Gov. DeSantis said on Friday during a press conference, in response to a question.
“It may not matter to everyone right now, but it matters to me,” the Republican governor said. “We were able to do something that’s made a difference in young people’s lives, as you’ll see as they grow up and have a chance to live the American dream.”
“So clearly if you believe in a culture of life, that’s a positive indication for sure,” Gov. DeSantis said.
The drop in abortions is presumably attributable to the state’s six-week abortion ban. Abortion activists tried to effectively wipe away any protections for preborn children during the 2024 election. However, a statewide referendum fell short of the 60 percent needed to pass.
The new law would have allowed for abortions for any reason through at least the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, when almost all abortions occur.
Governor DeSantis and his administration played a significant part in defeating the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” which stated that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider [i.e., abortionist].”
The whole-of-government opposition to the radical abortion amendment included aggressive investigation of potential signature gathering fraud on behalf of the pro-abortion side.
The healthcare administration agency also factually explained the harms if the law passed while informing Floridians of resources available to them to help them raise their children, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
DeSantis also launched a political action committee to push back against the amendment.
Florida is ‘where babies go to live’
During the March for Life this year, he heralded Florida’s approach – one of the first states to successfully defeat a pro-abortion ballot measure since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. South Dakota and Nebraska also defeated pro-abortion ballot measures on election night last year, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
“We were told since Dobbs … that standing for the right to life was somehow terrible politics,” DeSantis said, but “I’m living proof that that’s not true … and I can report to you now years later, not one single member of the Florida Legislature has been defeated for voting for Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Act.”
“Since we defeated Amendment 4, Florida’s not only the place where woke goes to die, it’s also the place where babies go to live,” he said further.
The law still contains exceptions, however. For example, preborn babies can be killed in the womb up until the 15th week of gestation if they were conceived as “the result of rape, incest, or human trafficking.” It also allows for abortions for the “life” of the mother.
Pro-lifers, however, affirm that every child is deserving of human rights from the moment of conception, regardless of the circumstances of his or her birth. Abortion – the destruction of an unborn child – is never justifiable, nor is it medically necessary to preserve a woman’s life or health, as medical experts have attested.
Furthermore, 60,755 babies were still killed through abortion in Florida in 2024 – and possibly more, as the effect of abortion drugs mailed in from out of state, and possibly from foreign countries, may diminish pro-life protections.
However, the effect abortion drug availability has on undermining bans has been challenged by Professor Michael New, a well-respected social scientist at the Catholic University of America.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a small decrease in the total number of abortions following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, though the accuracy, particularly since some states do not report abortion stats, remains unclear.
Since the Supreme Court decision in June 2022, various reports have come out suggesting different effects of the decision on abortions and birth rates.
A LifeSiteNews analysis found lives have been saved from laws against abortion. Furthermore, births have risen in places like Texas, where abortion is restricted, suggesting lives are being saved.