Ron DeSantis rips Donald Trump dodge on abortion question

Ron DeSantis is ripping Donald Trump for his refusal to take a stand on the abortion question.

In the wake of Trump’s vague criticisms of Florida’s new six-week abortion ban, the Florida Governor fired back at the former President.

“I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He will not answer whether he would sign it or not,” DeSantis said in Lighthouse Point.

“Protecting an unborn child when there’s the detectable heartbeat is something that almost, probably, 99% of pro-lifers support. It’s something other states like Iowa under Gov. Kim Reynolds have enacted,” DeSantis continued.

“And I think that as a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer to the question, ‘Would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did that had all the exceptions that people talk about?’ The Legislature put it in.”

The Governor’s fiery comments come after Trump offered meandering remarks in an interview published Monday.

In an interview with The Messenger, Trump said that even “pro-lifers” think the new six-week abortion ban is “too harsh.”

“Well, he has to do what he has to do. If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that was too harsh,” Trump told reporter Marc Caputo.

Trump was vague in saying his own feelings about the law, meanwhile, focusing instead on the changes he brought to the Supreme Court.

“I’m looking at all alternatives. I’m looking at many alternatives. But I was able to get us to the table by terminating Roe v. Wade. That’s the most important thing that’s ever happened for the pro-life movement,” Trump said.

“For 50 years, they’ve been trying to get rid of Roe v Wade. I was able to do it. Nobody else could have done that but me. And I was able to do it (by nominating) three excellent judges on the Justices of the Supreme Court. And I was able to do that. What it did more than anything else is it gave us a tremendous power of negotiation, which we didn’t have, the pro-life movement, a tremendous power of negotiation. … Now the pro-life movement has the power to negotiate a deal that’s acceptable for them.”

Despite the six-week ban in most cases, the law allows for certain exceptions.

2022’s HB 5 made no exception for cases of rape and incest, a controversy at the time. However, the new bill would allow abortion up to the 15th week of pregnancy if the woman was impregnated by human trafficking, rape or incest or a combination thereof. That exception would include statutory rapes.

Other exceptions would apply. If two doctors judge the pregnant woman to be in danger of dying or suffering “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition,” she could have an abortion. That sole physician’s recommendation would suffice if only one doctor were available.

Likewise, if the fetus had a “fatal abnormality,” abortion would be permitted during the first two trimesters.