SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
lauren book
In Dead of Night, Ron DeSantis Signs Near-Total Abortion Ban Into Law
"Women have been stripped of their rights and access to lifesaving healthcare," warned one Democratic lawmaker. "Women will undoubtedly die. This is not freedom."
Apr 13, 2023
Reproductive rights defenders decried the signing of a near-total abortion ban in Florida overnight by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate for the GOP in 2024.
Republican state lawmakers, who control both legislative chambers in the state, sent S.B. 300 to DeSantis' desk in order to bar the medical procedure after just six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant. Wasting no time, the governor signed the bill just before midnight.
\u201cDeSantis just signed one of the nation's most EXTREME abortion bans into law -- behind closed doors, and near midnight. \n\nHe knows how DEEPLY unpopular this law is and he doesn't want YOU to know about it. Please spread the word & help make sure others know too.\n\nStatement below:\u201d— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani \ud83d\udd28 (@Rep. Anna V. Eskamani \ud83d\udd28) 1681442985
The bill passed in the Florida House of Representatives by a 70-40 vote on Thursday afternoon, largely along party lines, after approval by the GOP-controlled Senate earlier this month. While the law will not go into effect immediately, the legislation is designed to replace an existing 2022 Florida law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with a six-week ban containing exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or human trafficking; in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities; or to save the pregnant person's life.
Jezebel reports Republican state lawmakers rejected an amendment to include an exception for a life-threatening condition that recently caused a woman to miscarry in a hair salon and nearly bleed to death. The woman, Anya Cook, is Black; this week is Black Maternal Health Week.
DeSantis, an ally of former President Donald Trump widely expected to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, promised he would sign the six-week ban into law.
"I've said…we're for pro-life," the governor said last month. "I urged the legislature to work, produce good stuff, and we will sign."
S.B. 300 is written so that it will become law if the Florida Supreme Court affirms the 15-week ban. The court is expected to hear a case involving that ban in the coming months.
\u201cHours after it passed the House floor, DeSantis just signed the 6 week abortion ban into law\n\nTO BE CLEAR: Abortion remains legal until 15 weeks\n\nThis ban does NOT go into effect until the FL Supreme Court makes a ruling to undermine our right to privacy in the FL constituent.\u201d— Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@Florida Planned Parenthood Action) 1681441716
Responding to Thursday's vote in the state House, Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D-32) tweeted that "Florida Republicans have now passed a dangerous abortion ban through both the House and the Senate—choosing to disregard the pleas of women and the doctors entrusted with their care, including two mothers in my own district forced to the brink of death following miscarriages due to the state's current restrictive laws."
"Now, things will get much worse," she added. "Women have been stripped of their rights and access to lifesaving healthcare. Women will undoubtedly die. This is not freedom."
Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-47) took to the legislature floor in pre-vote debate Thursday to propose an amendment to rename S.B. 300, officially the Pregnancy and Parenting Support Act.
"Members," she said, "this amendment renames the bill to the Forced Pregnancy Act, which is basically what it does."
Abortion rights defenders—some of whom were joined by Democratic Florida lawmakers in an impromptu singing of "Lean on Me" in the State Capitol after Thursday's vote—also warned that the six-week ban poses life-and-death risks to Floridians.
\u201cFL House cleared the gallery because the public, who got 30 seconds or 15 seconds in committee to speak on this bill, continue to express their opposition from the gallery\n\nLawmakers have joined the public in singing Lean on Me outside of the Florida House\n\nWe are all we\u2019ve got.\u201d— Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@Florida Planned Parenthood Action) 1681398265
"Across the country, pregnant people are being pushed to the brink of death because they can't get an abortion. Yet Florida lawmakers have rushed this dangerous ban through the legislature with no concern for their citizens and how it will harm them," Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
"This bill threatens to end abortion almost entirely amid a growing public health crisis," she continued. "If this ban takes effect, Floridians would be stranded in a vast abortion desert and forced to travel over 1,000 miles to get an abortion. No one should have to face that, and many people will not be able to make that journey."
"Across the country, pregnant people are being pushed to the brink of death because they can't get an abortion."
Common Dreams previously reported the ordeal of Nancy Davis, a Louisiana woman forced to carry a fetus with a fatal skull deformity inside her body for six months and then make a 2,500-mile round trip to New York in order to obtain an abortion.
"We also must remember," Smith added, "that Mifepristone is under attack, and if that pill is taken off the market, it will become even harder to get an abortion before six weeks."
\u201cIt's hard to overstate what a big deal this is. \n\nOnce Florida's bill takes effect (anticipated this summer), the Carolinas are the only states in the southeast with abortion legal past 6 weeks. \n\nThere aren't enough clinics for all the patients who will seek abortions.\u201d— Shefali Luthra (@Shefali Luthra) 1681418330
Although a panel of the right-wing 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal on Thursday temporarily blocked a Texas federal judge's invalidation of the government's approval of mifepristone—one of two drugs typically taken in tandem to induce medical abortion—reproductive rights campaigners warned that the ruling still poses a grave threat.
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) contended that if the U.S. Supreme Court hears the Texas case and the court's right-wing supermajority upholds the ruling, "it would essentially institute a national abortion ban."
Kara Gross, the ACLU of Florida's legislative director and senior policy counsel, said that "in a state that prides itself on being free, this is an unprecedented and unacceptable level of government overreach and intrusion."
\u201cNo one should be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.\u201d— ACLU of Florida (@ACLU of Florida) 1681413746
"This near-total abortion ban will effectively eliminate legal abortion care in Florida," Gross continued. "It will force hundreds of thousands of pregnant people to have to travel out of state to seek the care they need. Others will be forced to remain pregnant against their will and endure labor and delivery and all of the significant medical risks associated with pregnancy and birth. "
"Floridians deserve better from their elected leaders who are responsible for representing their voices and protecting their freedoms," she asserted. "The government should never be able to force anyone to carry a pregnancy against their will. Every Floridian deserves access to health care and the right to make personal decisions about their own lives, families, and futures."
\u201cMy statement on the final passage of Florida\u2019s extreme six-week abortion ban \u2014\u201d— Daniella Levine Cava (@Daniella Levine Cava) 1681418832
NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju said in a statement that "this ban is dangerous, plain and simple. It will not only cut off abortion access for Floridians but the countless people who have sought care there as extremists in their own states enforce bans."
"Ron DeSantis talks about the 'Free State of Florida,' but it's clear that if he signs this bill as he has signaled he will, he'll be selling out our freedoms for his own personal ambition, stooping to new lows to win the 2024 GOP primary," Timmaraju added. "He should have listened in November when voters made it clear they don't support abortion bans—he can count on hearing it again when he's on the ballot next."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'What a 15-Week Abortion Ban Looks Like in Real Life': Nearly Death
"They are playing with people's lives with this law," said one Florida woman who suffered a pregnancy complication and was denied care.
Apr 10, 2023
The harrowing experiences of two close friends in Florida who experienced serious pregnancy complications days apart are among the latest to show the reality faced by pregnant people in states with forced pregnancy laws—and the future the Republican Party is pushing for across the United States, rights advocates said Monday.
As The Washington Postreported, two women who had suffered miscarriages and bonded over their mutual experiences with infertility, Anya Cook and Shanae Smith-Cunningham, developed the same complication days apart in December when they were just 16 and 19 weeks pregnant, respectively—weeks before their fetuses were considered viable by doctors.
The two friends both experienced preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (PPROM), which affects less than 1% of pregnancies and causes the pregnant person to lose amniotic fluid, making it extremely unlikely that their fetus will survive.
PPROM can cause hemorrhaging and serious infections, and the standard of care recognized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is an induction of labor or a surgical abortion—but with Florida's 15-week abortion ban in effect since the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, doctors did not offer Cook those options when she went to a hospital in Coral Springs, Florida one night after realizing she has losing amniotic fluid.
Cook only received antibiotics and was told to wait at home for her symptoms to for her condition to progress. The next day, in the bathroom of a nail salon, she delivered her 16-week-old fetus and immediately began hemorrhaging—eventually losing nearly half the blood in her body.
The treatment she eventually was given after being rushed to the hospital a second time left her with complications that may make it even more difficult for her to carry a pregnancy to term.
She narrowly avoided a hysterectomy, which would have made a future pregnancy impossible.
"In what world is that pro-life?" asked Slate journalist Mark Joseph Stern.
\u201cBecause Florida law allows emergency abortions only in the most extreme and dire circumstances, patients who are not yet on the brink of death are encouraged to undergo hysterectomies instead. In what world is that pro-life? https://t.co/YeJQQuOHeF\u201d— Mark Joseph Stern (@Mark Joseph Stern) 1681135814
Florida's 15-week abortion ban—which Republicans are pushing to make even more extreme by banning abortion care for people who are more than six weeks pregnant—includes so-called "exceptions" only to "save the pregnant woman's life," "avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function," or in the case of "fatal fetal anomaly."
A study conducted in Texas last year showed that 57% of patients who experienced pre-viability PPROM in the state, where abortion is also banned, faced a "serious maternal morbidity" such as an infection or hemorrhage, putting them at risk for the same outcome Cook experienced. By comparison, 33% of patients with the complication in states without abortions experienced those medical emergencies as a result of PPROM.
Despite this, the six-week abortion ban proposal that has already passed in the Florida state Senate and is expected to pass in the Republican-controlled state House, does not include an exception for PPROM.
The devastation Cook and Smith-Cunningham faced as they lost their pregnancies "will only get worse with a six-week ban," said state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-42).
Smith-Cunningham was visiting family in Jamaica when she developed PPROM shortly after her friend did, and quickly traveled back home to Florida to get medical treatment.
Once she got there, she was sent home from her local hospital twice despite her symptoms, with a doctor "explicitly" mentioning the overturning of Roe v. Wade as the reason "she couldn't do anything to help."
She was told she couldn't receive the standard of care recognized by doctors across the country unless her cervix dilated further than the four centimeters it already had, or she began having an active miscarriage.
Instead, she stayed bedridden at home, terrified that she would begin hemorrhaging like her friend just had, until she finally became dilated enough to receive medical care.
"They are playing with people's lives with this law," Smith-Cunningham told the Post.
The two friends' experiences, saidHuffPost reporter Jonathan Cohn, demonstrate "what a 15-week abortion ban looks like in real life," with doctors refusing to care for patients out of fear of breaking the law, even if "exceptions" are included.
"The laws are working as intended," New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie added.
State Sen. Lauren Book (D-32), who represents both Smith-Cunningham and Cook, warned that "women will die" if the six-week ban is passed.
\u201cRead the @washingtonpost\u2019s story about mothers in my district who were denied needed abortion health care following traumatic miscarriages: https://t.co/FdD2DHQaJE\u201d— Lauren Book (@Lauren Book) 1681137165
"Despite denials from across the aisle, the truth is clear," said Book. "Florida mothers who suffer miscarriages are ALREADY being forced to the brink of death before receiving needed abortion care."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Two Florida Democratic Leaders Arrested While Protesting Six-Week Abortion Ban
"The women of this state will not forget the names of the 26 cowards who refused to stand up to Ron DeSantis," Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said of Republicans who voted for a six-week ban.
Apr 04, 2023
Two Florida Democratic leaders were among the protesters arrested late Monday during a demonstration against a proposed six-week abortion ban, which the Republican-controlled state Senate passed hours earlier.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried and Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book were handcuffed and detained along with roughly a dozen other protesters who gathered and sat down in a park near Tallahassee City Hall.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that Fried, Book, and the other demonstrators "were taken away by police while sitting in a circle and singing 'Lean on Me' inside a barricaded area of a park that was closed at sunset."
"They were warned by police that if they didn't leave the area, they would be subject to arrest," the newspaper continued. "As a large contingent of police approached, protesters yelled 'shame, shame' as everyone was cuffed and walked to the parking garage beneath City Hall and loaded into a Tallahassee Police Department van."
The advocacy group Ruth's List Florida condemned the arrests of peaceful demonstrators as "the latest disgraceful assault on our civil liberties."
"It's not enough for FL Republicans to take away our bodily autonomy, now they're trampling on our rights of free speech and assembly," the group wrote on Twitter. "DeSantis wants to make Florida into an autocracy, and his Republican allies are handing it to him on a silver platter. We stand in solidarity with our Democratic leaders for being at the forefront of this fight, and taking action that is well within our rights."
\u201cBREAKING: Tallahassee Police Department just arrested dozens of peaceful pro-choice protestors at City Hall outside of the Florida Capitol. \n\nThis includes Senator @LeaderBookFL and FDP Chair @NikkiFriedFL. \n\nAbortion is health care.\u201d— Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@Florida Planned Parenthood Action) 1680567765
The abortion ban legislation passed the Florida Senate on Monday by a vote of 26-13, with the chamber's Democrats and two Republicans voting no. The bill, backed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, now heads to the Florida House, which is also controlled by Republicans.
"The women of this state will not forget the names of the 26 cowards who refused to stand up to Ron DeSantis," Fried said following the Senate vote. "You all will go down with him, not a threat, a promise."
Hours after her arrest, Fried wrote on Twitter: "I'm out. And not ever backing down."
\u201cI\u2019m out. And not ever backing down. \nJust fucking vote @FlaDems!!!\u201d— Nikki Fried (@Nikki Fried) 1680580222
Abortion is currently banned in Florida after 15 weeks of pregnancy. As the Associated Pressreported, the new ban "would only take effect if the state's current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge that is before the state Supreme Court."
Florida is one of dozens of Republican-dominated states that have implemented draconian abortion bans since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.
"Many states have passed near-total bans on abortion with very limited exceptions or banned the procedure early in pregnancy," the Guttmacher Institute noted in a recent report. "Courts have blocked some of these bans from taking effect, ushering in a chaotic legal landscape that is disruptive for providers trying to offer care and patients trying to obtain it."
Kara Gross, ACLU of Florida's legislative director and senior policy counsel, called the Florida Senate's Monday vote "a disgrace" and warned the proposed six-week abortion ban would "unfairly and disproportionately impact people who live in rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, and people of color."
"Hundreds of thousands of pregnant people will be forced to travel out of state to seek the care they need," Gross continued. "Many people will not even know they are pregnant by six weeks, and for those who do, it is unlikely they will be able to schedule the legally required two in-person doctor's appointments before six weeks of pregnancy."
"This bill is an extreme governmental overreach that's being orchestrated across the country," Gross added. "We all should have the freedom to make decisions about our bodies, lives, and futures without interference from politicians."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular