Jesi Cason, one of the protest's speakers, addresses a crowd opposed to proposed legislation that would outlaw most abortions past the 6-week mark in Florida. HB7 will be taken up by the House on Thursday. The Senate approved the limit on April 3. DEVON CRUMPACKER

Demonstrators gathered on the steps of the Old Lee County Courthouse on Monday evening to voice their displeasure with a new bill making its way through the Florida Legislature that would see abortion access severely restricted after six weeks of pregnancy if signed into law.

“Government does not have the authority or the right to make those decisions for somebody who can make their own choices,” said Howard Sapp from a megaphone to the crowd. “It makes no sense.”

Sapp, a former air traffic controller and Florida Democrat, is challenging Republican Fort Myers Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka for her state House seat. Persons-Mulicka is the sponsor of the proposed bill in question, known as HB7. It is currently slated for discussion on the House floor later this week. If passed, it will be considered with its companion bill, SB 300, that passed the Senate floor vote on April 3.

The so-called heartbeat bill comes on the heels of Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban law, which was enacted just last year. The law and others like it have been springing up around the country in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion in America for decades.

“Jenna thinks I’m morally incapable of making my own healthcare decisions,” said another speaker, Jesi Cason, to the crowd. “Jenna thinks that because she went to a private Christian college and majored in government that she can make my healthcare decisions.”

Cason, a prominent local photographer and activist, described to the crowd how the Republican party has seen an exponential growth in political power in Florida over the past decade or so, with the party now holding the governor’s office, as well as a supermajority in both the House and the Senate. She went on to give a grim prediction for Florida abortion rights advocates.

“They’re not going to stop,” said Cason. “You think they’re going to stop with a six-week ban? They’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop until we have no rights.”

One of the more glaring points of contention between proponents and opponents of HB7 deals with the idea of when a human heart actually starts beating. Persons-Mulicka has said publicly on multiple occasions that a heartbeat can be seen at six weeks. This notion is the basis for enacting a potential six-week abortion ban law. However, many medical professionals prefer the term “cardiac activity” to “heartbeat” at six weeks of development, when the heart isn’t fully-formed and its pulses are sporadic.

“We cannot be afraid to talk to our friends, our families, our neighbors. Even if they don’t want to listen,” Cason continued. “We are the majority of this country. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that abortions should be legal in all or most cases.”

Cason was referring to a recently released survey from the nonpartisan research organization Public Religion Research Institute that found that 64 percent of respondents believed abortion should be legal in at least most cases, while only 34 percent said it should be illegal in most or all cases.

“We’re going to be seen as much as we can,” added Sapp before the close of remarks. “And we’re going to let people know that this is what we stand for, right here.”

Chants of “Not your body, not your choice” could be heard from blocks away as the demonstration drew to a close.

The bill has been added to the House Special Order Calendar on Thursday, meaning it has been determined to be of high priority and scheduled for consideration then.

According to a summary analysis of the bill, if approved by the House and ultimately signed by the governor, the legislation would prohibit physicians from “knowingly performing or inducing termination of pregnancy” after six weeks from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period, with limited exceptions.

It would affect the dispensation of abortion-inducing drugs in two ways. It would limit physicians to dispensing such medications only in person and would prohibit telehealth providers from using telehealth to provide such treatment. Current law does not regulate how physicians dispense these abortion-inducing drugs, or the use of telehealth to provide abortions.

If approved, the bill would expand the services offered by the Florida Pregnancy Support Services Program to eligible clients “to include parenting services, nonmedical material assistance, counseling, mentoring, education materials, and classes on pregnancy, parenting, adoption, life skills and employment readiness.”

The legislation also calls for a recurring appropriation of $30 million.