Nikki Fried says abortion makes health care an issue at the polls

On the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried is confident that this will be the year that health care will be a driving factor in the state’s elections.

“We’ve seen all across the country, not just women, but our allies and people that are frustrated that politicians are making the ultimate decision about a health care decision that is so intimate and so private that should be kept within their own personal family circles and that with the doctor,” Fried said.

Shortly after the Dobbs decision in 2022, Fried herself tried to use access to abortion as a talking point in her Democratic Primary campaign against Charlie Crist. But Crist easily defeated Fried for the gubernatorial nomination before he was trounced by Gov. Ron DeSantis that November.

This year Florida voters will decide directly on an amendment guaranteeing access to abortion. The vote will come just months after a new ban on abortion after six weeks took effect.

Proponents of abortion access have stressed that abortion transcends reproductive freedom and impacts people’s access to health care. It was a theme that was carried over at a Tallahassee press conference Monday to highlight the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling.

Florida is also one of just 10 states that hasn’t expanded access to Medicaid as allowable under federal law. Democrats in the past have tried to use health care access, and Medicaid expansion, as a campaign issue. But it hasn’t translated to success at the polls.

Fried, however, contends that this year will be different.

“This is the first time I believe, probably in the history of the United States, where a right has been given and now taken away, and that is why people are so angry,” Fried said.

“Because if this could happen with reproductive freedom, what is next? And we know what is next, that’s contraception, that is IVF, that is everything that comes next. Because they’ve laid it out,” Fried added, referring to Project 2025. “So this is not just about health care. This is about freedom. This is about democracy and Americans taking the last stance of what we want and how we want America to operate from.”