A.G. Gancarski
In the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis signing new abortion restrictions into law, two of Florida’s leading Democrats are sounding the alarm.
During a Bans Off Our Bodies Virtual Day of Action event, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani warned reproductive rights activists about the dangers to women in the wake of the new “Heartbeat Protection Act,” which bans abortion after the sixth week of gestation in most cases, pending a Supreme Court decision on the 15-week ban passed last year.
Frost was up first, and he was unvarnished in his words.
“And I’ll be honest, like many of y’all on this call I’m on here because I’m mad as hell. I’m p—-d off that we have a state government and that we have a leadership that is valuing politics over people.”
The rookie member of Congress from Orlando chastized Tallahassee for “passing legislation that over 70% of Floridians disagree with, from things on guns to what we see going on in school to the abomination of a piece of legislation that we saw just a few days ago where over half of our people had one of their most intimate human rights stripped away from them by this Governor.”
Frost characterized DeSantis as a “Governor who’s more interested in running for President than running our state, which is part of the reason why we have to continue to call out the incredible hypocrisy from this Governor under the guise of being pro-life.”
Eskamani was even blunter, describing circumstances as “incredibly dark, painful and, and a reflection of our fascist Governor and his agenda to take away all of our rights as he sets himself up to run for President and to reflect his values, if you can even call them that, on the rest of our country.”
The Orlando legislator blasted DeSantis as “a coward in signing this bill into law behind closed doors at 11 o’clock at night without any press on Thursday,” before going on to describe the dozens of rejected Democratic amendments, including her own title change to the “Forced Pregnancy Act.”
From there, she returned to a denunciation of the Governor’s “ghost campaign tour,” heaping more invective on the late-night signing complete with a “Please Clap” moment of enthusiasm at the event.
“I mean, it was like Jeb Bush vibes in full force,” Eskamani commented.
