TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s new law to ban abortions after 15 weeks is at the center of a hearing on Monday. A Leon County judge will decide whether to grant a temporary injunction and therefore block the law from going into effect Friday.

What You Need To Know

  • A hearing will happen Monday, in which a judge will hear arguments for and against the 15-week abortion ban

  • The Florida law is set to take effect Friday, July 1, and a ruling is expected before then

  • Data shows about 94% of abortions in Florida are performed through week 11

People are planning protests on Monday night, in reaction to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade on Friday. It’s now up to states to determine their own abortion laws.

Over the weekend, people advocated on both sides of the debate. Some were fearful of losing rights, while others want further restrictions on abortion access.

“We will settle for nothing less than the unborn having being declared persons, that they have the rights restored, that the same rights that you and I have," said one local Central Florida protester.

Others are not in favor of the decades-old law being overturned.

“Whether that’s who we can marry, whether that’s if we can have children, how many children or whether to decide to have a family at all, these are all personal decisions that should be made by the individual,” said Equality Florida’s Deputy Field Director Yordanos Molla.

In the Tallahassee hearing, abortion clinics and doctors are challenging the state law. They cite the state constitution’s privacy policy as grounds for their challenge.

According to data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, 79,817 abortions were performed in the past year. The data shows the vast majority of those, about 94%, happened in the first trimester through week 11.

Further, the numbers point to 119 total abortions due to “life-dangering physical conditions,” 118 due to rape, and eight due to incest.

Some lawmakers, like State Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R- District 32), are pushing for a special session for the legislature to pass more stringent abortion law, like some other states have done.

“We must pass the Heartbeat Bill & other strong pro-life measures to protect Florida’s unborn children,” he wrote on Twitter.

Other pro-choice advocates like State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D- District 47) said, “I find it ironic that despite the fact that Gov. DeSantis wants to run for president in 2024 and has continued to carry anti-abortion tropes throughout his rhetoric and policy agenda, that his statement stops short of saying he would call for a special session to ban abortion or that he would fully support an abortion ban.”

She’s one of the organizers of the rally Monday that is set to happen at Orlando City Hall at 5 p.m. EDT.