Florida's House of Representatives has passed a bill to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a measure several Republican-led states are pushing as the US Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of such limits.
House approval moments before midnight sent consideration of the legislation to the state Senate, which is expected to pass it in the near future.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has likewise signaled his support for the bill.
Enactment in the Tallahassee statehouse would significantly reduce access to late-term abortions for women across the US Southeast, many of whom travel hundreds of kilometres to end pregnancies in Florida because of stricter abortion laws in surrounding states.
Republican lawmakers around the country have introduced bills mirroring a 15-week abortion ban enacted by Mississippi in 2018 and now under review by the Supreme Court on appeal after lower courts struck down the measure as unconstitutional.
Arizona's Senate and West Virginia's House passed similar 15-week abortion bans on Tuesday.Â