Aaron DiPietro of Florida Family Voice, formerly Florida Family Policy Council, says The Sunshine State has had the largest decline in abortions of any state in the entire nation.
"We're extremely grateful about the culture of life that is really developing around this," he tells AFN. "We've had a 14% decline in abortion, which is in contrast to the overall rise in the number of abortions that occurred in the U.S. in total in more blue, pro-abortion states."
Michael New, an assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America and a senior associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, also thinks Florida is better off today.
"The Florida heartbeat act is saving over 400 babies every month," he recently noted in a related National Review column.
As there is still work to be done, DiPietro encourages people to get educated and engage.
"We need to be out on the streets, outside of abortion clinics sharing hope and life to the mothers that are considering abortion," he asserts. "We need to be in the schools educating students on the value of human life and the development of the human in the womb. We need to be speaking about these issues in our churches, in our small groups, youth groups, and life groups. We need to be sharing the message and engaging in pro-life apologetics and pro-life care. We need to be supporting pregnancy care resource centers."
Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed the Heartbeat Protection Act in April 2023, makit it a crime for a physician to knowingly perform an abortion without determining whether the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat, without informing the mother of the results, or after determining that a unborn child has a detectable heartbeat.
A preborn baby's heart typically begins beating around 5 to 6 weeks after conception, so the measure protects preborn children in Florida at and after that point.
