A.G. Gancarski
During an interview on Fox News, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida was “sympathetic” to expectant mothers mulling abortion, and that the fathers of the unborn children should pay child support to the mothers.
“Most of these women do not want to have abortions, but they feel like they have no other options because they get no support. And that’s because a lot of these men are nowhere to be found,” DeSantis told Kayleigh McEnany.
“They should absolutely be providing support,” DeSantis added. “They should absolutely be held accountable.”
DeSantis said that in Florida, being “pro-life means for the whole kit and caboodle,” noting that state law expands postpartum medical care and options for foster care and adoption.
“I think a lot of it comes down to whether women think it’s financially feasible to do that. And when they don’t get support from the father, then it can be overwhelming. So we in Florida are sympathetic to those women in that situation,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis signed legislation banning abortion in most cases at the sixth week of gestation earlier this year.
That law isn’t yet in effect. The Supreme Court is set to review a ban of abortion, passed in 2022, after the 15th week of pregnancy. Yet DeSantis has contended there is no path to extend the six-week ban nationally given a lack of “consensus” in other states.
Meanwhile, though the current law offers no recourse for women who were impregnated by these men who are “nowhere to be found,” it wasn’t for lack of trying, as a Democrat in the House filed an ultimately failed amendment that would have required men to pony up if they impregnated underaged mothers.
An amendment on the six-week ban bill from Rep. Katherine Waldron would have compelled the father of a baby whose underaged mother was denied an abortion to put up a $300,000 bond for financial support of the mother and imposing a condition of no contact on the father. That bond, to be extracted at the sixth week of gestation, would have been in effect until the child is an adult or can live independently, whichever comes first.
Ultimately, that and other Democratic amendments did not make the final legislation.
10 comments
Rick Whitaker
September 6, 2023 at 3:58 pm
desantis is wealthy, so he may think poor people can pay their bills with “sympathy”. desantis would get more votes if he were mute.
Silly Wabbit
September 7, 2023 at 4:34 pm
Twue that.
ScienceBLVR
September 6, 2023 at 7:38 pm
Lady Madonna, baby at your breast.. Wonders how you manage to feed the rest…. See how they run…
PeterH
September 6, 2023 at 10:05 pm
It is absurd to think that every expectant woman desires to bring her pregnancy to term. Why are we advocating unwanted children???
Lex
September 7, 2023 at 8:25 am
Abortion is wrong. But I think the nation needs that to be a state-by-state decision to give power to the Tenth Amendment. There are ways to articulate that abortion is wrong and find a compromise whether it is six weeks or eight weeks or just dire circumstances, a compromise that reduces abortions to a much smaller number in Florida should be the goal.
TJC
September 7, 2023 at 12:26 pm
Poll after poll shows that the majority of Floridians do not support the Governor’s and the GOP legislators’ soon-to-be law restricting abortion after six weeks. So, when you say it should be left up to each state, does that mean the legislators of the State of Florida who are ignoring the will of the people, or left up to the citizens of Florida. Do we defer to the “wisdom” of the legislators, or should these laws be put up for a vote?
Your thoughts, please.
Mark
September 8, 2023 at 12:18 am
If we limit control to the states, why not extend that further, to say, the counties? Or maybe just to the individual?
A Random Guest
September 8, 2023 at 11:53 am
So, the GOP refused to hold statutory rapists accountable for the children they produced.
So “pro-life” of them. NOT
Ron DeSantis is pro-death
September 9, 2023 at 6:27 am
DeSantis calling himself pro-life would be believable if he wasn’t executing people. His active support for the death penalty makes him pro-death rather than pro-life.
Michael K
September 10, 2023 at 5:36 pm
The more precise term is “forced birthing,” which reflects the true effect and intent of denying women the right to make their own personal reproductive health decisions.
And let’s stop the lie of “abortion up until birth.” There is no such thing, and no one is advocating for that.
Comments are closed.