(LifeSiteNews) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign on Wednesday confirmed that the presidential candidate would sign a nationwide 15-week abortion ban if elected to the White House in 2024. DeSantis’ pledge comes after Trump has dodged making a similar commitment.
The Daily Signal reported that it had received confirmation Wednesday night from DeSantis’ campaign that he did in fact plan to sign such a law.
The confirmation came after DeSantis responded in the affirmative when asked by fellow candidate Tim Scott during the Wednesday GOP primary debate whether he would approve a 15-week ban.
DeSantis already signed a statewide 15-week abortion ban in Florida in April 2022. The law is being challenged by abortionists, but was allowed to remain in effect pending legal resolution.
As LifeSiteNews has reported, Florida currently recognizes a “right to abortion” under the state constitution’s privacy amendment interpreted in a decades-old state Supreme Court ruling. In January 2023, Florida’s Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the 15-week ban, paving a way for the rollback of the statewide “right to abortion” and changing the trajectory of pro-life legislation in Florida. The Court has also allowed the state to continue enforcing the law for now, at least until it reaches a final verdict.
In April 2023, the Florida governor signed a much stronger pro-life law to ban abortions after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, around six weeks’ gestation. However, the measure won’t take effect until a final decision is rendered in the ongoing case concerning the constitutionality of the state’s current 15-week abortion ban.
READ: DeSantis signs Florida’s six-week abortion ban
The Daily Signal noted Wednesday night that DeSantis is joined by Scott, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and former Vice President Mike Pence in agreeing to ban abortions of babies after 15 weeks of pregnancy nationwide.
For his part, Republican front-runner Donald Trump — who has maintained a commanding lead over DeSantis in the primary — has not said he would sign such a law. Instead, he has called for bipartisan negotiations to settle the issue of abortion, suggesting that he could “come up with a number” of gestational weeks that would “make people happy” on both sides of the aisle and put an end to the national debate.
Trump has also argued that poor messaging on the abortion issue was the reason that a large number of the candidates he endorsed in the 2022 midterm elections lost and claimed that DeSantis’ decision to sign the six-week heartbeat law was “terrible.”
DeSantis has pushed back strongly against Trump’s allegations.
“I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats,” the Florida Republican said during the Wednesday night GOP primary debate (which Trump did not attend), arguing that other factors led to their losses.
READ: DeSantis rejects Trump’s claim of pro-lifers costing GOP votes as ex-president misses second debate
The presidential hopeful said he wants Trump to “look into the eyes” of “people who have been fighting this [pro-life] fight for a long time” and explain his remarks “that pro-life protections are somehow a ‘terrible’ thing.”
“I think we should stand for what we believe in,” DeSantis said. “I think we should hold the Democrats accountable for their extremism, supporting abortion all the way up until the moment of birth. That is infanticide, and that is wrong.”