Florida Democrats Zero In on Abortion as State’s Six-Week Ban Set To Go Into Effect This Week

Florida’s six-week abortion ban is set to go into effect on Wednesday, further restricting abortion access in the South and once again thrusting the issue into the political spotlight in the state.Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Florida has become one of a handful of states to which women living in the South travel for abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, about 9,300 women went to Florida seeking abortions last year.The new six-week ban will supersede an existing 15-week ban that has been on the books in the state since last year. Other nearby states that allow abortion, like Georgia and South Carolina, also have enacted six-week bans.While the new Florida law will allow abortion up until 15 weeks in cases involving rape, incest, and human trafficking, exceptions like those included in the Florida law have proved difficult to act on in other states.Florida’s new law also includes an exception in cases where an abortion would save the life of the mother. Yet, as arguments at the Supreme Court last week illuminated, the line of when exactly a mother’s life is at risk is often a matter of medical opinion.Aside from the myriad concerns regarding access to reproductive care, the new six-week ban is again pushing the issue of abortion to the forefront of politics in the state.A doctor with Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, Marian Sampson, said in a statement announcing the beginning of a campaign in support of the amendment that “a six-week ban will force more Floridians to leave the state for the care they need.“For those who are unable to travel, they will be forced to carry pregnancies against their will, subjecting them to life-altering, and sometimes life-threatening, consequences,” Dr. Sampson said.The Florida law was cleared to go into effect following a state supreme court ruling earlier this year that also allowed an abortion rights measure to appear on ballots in the state this November.Democrats around the country are using the implementation of Florida’s six-week ban as an opportunity to go on the offensive on the topic of abortion.In a new Spanish-language ad, Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is targeting Senator Scott, against whom she is running in the state’s U.S. Senate race. “My mother brought me here from Ecuador for freedom, and it’s freedom that Rick Scott wants to take away,” Ms. Mucarsel-Powell says in the ad obtained by Newsweek. “He supports banning abortion and forcing the government into our doctor’s offices.”Florida is one of nine states where Democrats are prioritizing messaging on abortion rights, alongside Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.The chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, announced Monday that the party would be putting up candidates in all of the state’s 28 congressional districts for the first time since 2018, aiming to capitalize on the abortion issue.Thirty years of Republican rule “has failed Floridians,” Ms. Fried said in a statement. “Property insurance rates are through the roof, we lead the nation in teacher shortages, and over a million Floridians have been kicked off Medicaid because Florida Republicans refuse to expand it.”Ms. Fried added that the renewed effort in every congressional district could help swing the state in the presidential and Senate competitions there.“When we have candidates running everywhere, we give Democrats in every corner of the state a reason to show up and vote on Election Day,” Ms. Fried said.Recent polling has indicated that the Florida public is divided on a preferred abortion policy. A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research survey from last week reported that 50 percent of respondents would support a national abortion ban after 15 weeks, and 40 percent said they would oppose such a ban.An Emerson College survey released earlier this month, though, indicated that 57 percent of voters would vote to expand abortion access through 24 weeks of pregnancy, including 63 percent of independents and 34 percent of Republicans.The combination of opposition to the six-week ban and the ballot measure in November even has some Republicans wondering whether they can keep control of both houses of the state legislature in November.“Given how unpopular this new policy is and the fact that there’s a constitutional amendment question regarding abortion on the ballot, I do think that there’s some risk for down-ballot Republicans,” Congressman Carlos Curbelo told the Hill.

Florida Democrats Zero In on Abortion as State’s Six-Week Ban Set To Go Into Effect This Week

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