Florida Sen. Marco Rubio agreed Tuesday to spearhead a bill through the Senate banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The bill will likely be similar to a controversial bill passed in the House of Representatives with a vote of 228-196 last month. The White House has stated it will veto the bill should it make through chambers of Congress.
Rubio’s timing falls on the heels of a heated debate in the Texas state legislature, where a democratic representative last week filibustered Gov. Rick Perry’s attempt to pass near identical legislation. The Governor on Monday called for a special session of the legislature, during which the bill is expected to pass.
“The people who are actually closed-minded in American politics are the people who love to preach about the certainty of science with regards to our climate but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at conception,” Rubio said during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March.
Though unlikely to pick up momentum in the Democratically-controlled Senate, Rubio’s sponsorship of the bill will likely garner support from Rubio’s tea party supporters.
Many staunch conservatives were vocal in their criticism of the 2016 Republican presidential favorite for his co-sponsorship of the sweeping immigration reform bill that passed in the Senate last week.
According to the Weekly Standard which reported the story Tuesday, Rubio will formally announce his lead sponsorship of the bill next week, following Congress’s recess for the July 4 holiday.