Today marks one year to the day that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s 15-week abortion ban into law and unleashed one story after another of cruelty and brutality on women and girls in our state. Under DeSantis’ current ban, two South Florida pregnant women were denied care that they desperately needed — a reality that nearly took one of their lives. And America read in horror as a middle school-aged incest victim made national headlines after being forced to travel out of state to seek care. In another jaw-dropping case, a parentless high school girl was forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term because a judge deemed her too immature to decide her own fate, yet somehow also saw her as ready to be a parent. Each of these women and girls had their rights and their freedoms stolen by DeSantis — a man who by nearly all accounts is driven by his ambition to occupy the White House.
Now, exactly one year later, Republicans in the Legislature are on the brink of passing an even more extreme abortion ban as DeSantis cheers them on. This bill is a reproductive-rights nightmare for Florida. For starters, it bans abortion before many women even know that they are pregnant. In my last pregnancy, I didn’t even know it until the eighth week. This atrocious legislation also includes no exceptions for rape and incest victims after 15 weeks. Even before that, girls or women must officially document being a crime victim before seeking the care they need. So, for a girl or woman who suffers a cruel assault to get the care she needs, DeSantis would force her to face even more layers of mental, emotional and financial trauma.
DeSantis’ latest abortion ban would tie the hands of doctors in horrible ways. This ban prohibits women from obtaining medication abortion pills in the mail, a barrier that disproportionately impacts working class patients. And it also ends doctors’ ability to see patients via telehealth or virtual appointments — cruelly curbing this modern convenience just as Republicans shrink the time that patients can even legally receive the care they need.
With such outrageous restrictions, it’s no surprise that recent polling found 75% of Floridians opposed extreme abortion bans. Despite that overwhelming hostility, DeSantis is making anti-choice extremism a pillar of his shadow presidential campaign. DeSantis prides himself on ignoring public opinion on the issues he pursues, but there’s no dignity in defying a majority of people in Florida. As governor, DeSantis should pass legislation to ease high rents and property insurance costs, or improve access to affordable health care by expanding Medicaid, just as North Carolina Republicans agreed to do.
The reality is, DeSantis will force his anti-choice extremism on Florida’s women and girls just to enamor an extremist MAGA primary base. This legislative session isn’t about the life and health of women to DeSantis, it’s a cold, calculated play to pass radical, right-wing legislation to pad his resume for a 2024 Republican primary. The more DeSantis feeds his insatiable hunger for higher office, the more Floridians will suffer.
As DeSantis and his Republican allies continue to push their extreme MAGA agenda, millions of Floridians will continue our fight to protect reproductive rights. And moderate Americans across the country will reject extremists like DeSantis for trying to push his anti-choice zealotry to their states. Now it is up to all of us to not only help ensure that women can still get the care they need, but help guarantee DeSantis never takes his anti-choice extremism into the White House.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, represents the 25th congressional district.
