Florida’s six-week ban on most abortions took effect Wednesday, limiting the procedure past the point where supporters claim an unborn child’s heartbeat is detectable.
Vice President Kamala Harris marked the occasion with an appearance in Jacksonville, where she attacked former President Donald Trump for laying the groundwork for the law to take effect.
“Across our country, we have witnessed an all-out, state-by-state attack on reproductive freedom, and we understand who is to blame: Former President Donald Trump did this,” Harris, 59, said .
“Donald Trump chose three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe (v Wade), and as he predicted, they did.”
With the new ban in effect in Florida, some 50,000 babies could be saved each year, according to a screening of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
“This historic day marks a huge victory in the battle for human rights of our time. We celebrate the boys and girls who will live through Florida’s #heartbeat law and how they will bless their families, friends and communities,” the group posted on.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 45, signed the ban – which allows for exceptions to save the mother’s life – into law in April last year, weeks before launching his unsuccessful presidential bid. of 2024.
Ironically, Trump, 77, called DeSantis’ decision to sign the bill a “terrible mistake.”
Trump has also distanced himself from the anti-abortion movement, announcing last month that he would not support a national ban on the procedure, called for by some in his party.
The Florida Supreme Court allowed the six-week ban to take effect last month, but also gave the green light to a ballot measure to overturn the restrictions — which will require a 60% threshold to pass .
The referendum attracted attention from outside the Sunshine State, with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s Think Big America group pumping $500,000 into the pro-abortion camp’s efforts.
Democrats have tried to use voters’ unease over abortion restrictions to try to regain a foothold in Florida, which has shifted toward the Republican Party over the past decade.
DeSantis scoffed at the idea.
“I welcome Biden and Harris spending a lot of money in Florida. Light up the waves. Light it on fire. We’re okay with you doing this here. But I can confidently predict that you will see Republican victories,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.
Before Florida’s six-week ban was enacted, the Sunshine State was the least restrictive of all its neighbors, according to an Axios analysis.
“Until now, Florida was perhaps the only state in the southeast where a woman could seek reproductive health care,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Wednesday.
Critics of the law, like Planned Parenthood, say it will ban abortion before many women even know they are pregnant.
Florida has 30 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. Its voters have supported a Democrat for president only three times since 1980: Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
New York Post
