Ron DeSantis doesn’t believe Congress would pass a six-week abortion ban

Ron DeSantis on Fox News.

Ron DeSantis doesn’t have faith that a six-week abortion ban will get through Congress as it did the Florida Legislature, despite vowing to be a “pro-life President,” if elected.

During a Sunday interview on the Fox News Channel’s “Mediabuzz,” the Governor addressed Howard Kurtz’s question about his support of a national equivalent to 2023’s Heartbeat Protection Act.

“Look, the Congress is probably not the place you want to put your hopes and dreams if you’re supporting pro-life. And so I think we’re going to really have a strong bottom up approach. We’re going to be working with states and localities to be able to advance the cause of life.”

The Governor dealt with a similar question from Fox News alum Tucker Carlson Friday, dancing around the idea that a national ban is possible.

“I don’t think Rome is built in a day. I think it’s going to take time to make progress in some parts of the country. But as President, I will be somebody who will use the bully pulpit to support governors like Kim Reynolds when she’s got a bill, other states as they advance the cause of life,” DeSantis said.

This wasn’t the first time the Governor said he wouldn’t apply Florida’s commitment to the “cause of life” to the other states if President.

During a May appearance on “Fox News Tonight,” DeSantis said that after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, “there’s a role for both the federal (government) and states” to play going forward, but that “fighting for life and protecting life really is a bottom-up movement.”

“I think that there’s just a practical reality that the country is divided on the issue. And so the question is, you know, how are you going to be able to save, you know, more lives? Some of this is a matter of strategy, some of it is a matter of, you know, what could you do to be able to advance the ball forward?” he added. “Clearly in California, you know, you are going to have very, very hostile views.”

The Governor’s position has been misrepresented as backing a national abortion ban, including by Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.

“We told you – Ron DeSantis wants to bring his cruel, extreme Florida agenda of banning abortion to the rest of the country. This is a new low in his desperate race to win the MAGA base. DeSantis’s latest attack on freedom only drags him and the rest of the 2024 GOP field even further out of touch with the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose MAGA Republicans’ push to ban abortion nationwide.”

That said, DeSantis has moved toward restrictions twice in office. He said last year that a 15-week abortion ban was “reasonable,” before moving for a harsher ban in 2023.