“While we continue to look forward to the day when the full protection of unborn life is recognized in law, we are encouraged that HB 5 further limits the grave harm that abortion inflicts upon women and children,” said Christie Arnold of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The new Florida law “closely tracks the Mississippi law at issue in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case pending at the U.S. Supreme Court, which could reverse the unjust ruling in Roe v. Wade,” according to the state bishops’ conference. “If the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s law, Florida’s legislation will likely be upheld.”