Gabrielle Russon
Broward County resident Anya Cook shared an emotional story about how she nearly died during her pregnancy because doctors refused to treat her after Florida’s abortion ban.
Cook joined abortion rights earlier this month in a final election push for Amendment 4 at a Fort Lauderdale event sponsored by Reproductive Freedom Collective of Broward County.
“My husband and I were overjoyed when we learned we were pregnant after IVF,” Cook said, according to a press release. “But after my water broke at 16 weeks, we were told our baby wouldn’t survive — and because of Florida’s abortion bans, I couldn’t receive the care I needed. I lost nearly half the blood in my body and almost died because they sent me home instead of helping me. This is not just about abortion, this is about saving women’s lives.”
The proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday’s ballot wants to limit government interference on abortion before viability — which is considered about 24 weeks — or to save the mother’s life.
The ballot question also says, “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
Medical providers, elected officials, faith leaders and others gathered at Esplanade Park during Sunday’s Yes on 4 Rally and March to the Polls.
“As a mother and a survivor of sexual assault, this fight is personal,” said Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, who is a co-founder of Broward group that organized the rally. “I refuse to live in a world where my daughter has fewer rights than her twin brother. Abortion bans are an attack on our fundamental rights to privacy and bodily autonomy. Today’s rally is a testament to the strength of our movement, but we need every Floridian to join us by voting YES on 4 to protect our rights.”
Advocates who oppose abortion rights, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis, are attacking Amendment 4 by calling it too extreme and arguing Florida’s law already provides exceptions to save a woman’s life.
6 comments
Jojo
October 31, 2024 at 4:22 pm
The doctors who are shilling for DeSantes in the anti amendment 4 ads should reread their hypocritical oath. They might want to turn a blind eye but there are real world examples of how women are being harmed because of lack of access to care or doctors refusal to treat for fear of being prosecuted under Florida’s draconian laws
Jojo
October 31, 2024 at 5:41 pm
Hippocratic
Dang spell check
MarvinM
October 31, 2024 at 7:19 pm
YES on 4
A woman in Texas died because of laws likes this.
Died.
Let me repeat that, she died.
And she ain’t the only one who died since Roe v. Wade was essentially overturned by the stacked Supreme Court.
She died from not getting care for a pretty normal miscarriage.
That’s frightening.
Women in Florida should not have to go through that.
VOTE YES on 4.
Rita Joseph
October 31, 2024 at 5:03 pm
Genuine medicine recognizes a fundamental difference between abortion ‘services’ that are elective and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even where such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child.
As the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists explains:
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defined legal induced abortion as an “intervention performed by a licensed clinician (e.g., a physician, nurse-midwife, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant) that is intended to terminate a suspected or known ongoing intrauterine pregnancy and produce a non-viable fetus at any gestational age.”
There is a night and day difference between selective abortion and separating a mother and her unborn child for the purposes of saving a mother’s life (preterm parturition).
There are times when separating the mother and her unborn child is necessary to save the life of the mother, even if the unborn child is too premature to live. In those tragic cases, if possible, the life of the baby will be attempted to be preserved, and if not possible, the body of the unborn child is treated with respect, recognizing the humanity of the life which is lost in the separation.
In contrast, the purpose of a selective abortion is to produce a dead baby. That is what an abortionist is paid to do: to kill the unborn child before delivering it, or to kill the child during the delivery process, as is done with partial-birth abortion. So the focus of the selective abortion procedure is on killing the unborn child, and the purpose of the selective abortion is to produce a dead baby.”
Myron. Rhodes Jr
November 1, 2024 at 9:31 am
Abortion is not healthcare. 95% of abortions are used to cover for bad behavior. A drunk can’t get one to stop a DUI that has life-long consequences. FAFO. The “my body,my choice” argument breaks down when you frame it as: make a choice not to sleep with dead beats and don’t be a tramp sleeping with everyone. There current law DOES provide for the health of the mother of there is an emergency. Those stories are not being portrayed properly and are being used to falsely inflame voters who are not knowledgeable or easily swayed by those falsehoods.
Abortion is murder. PERIOD!
VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 4!!!
cassandra was right
November 2, 2024 at 8:56 am
“There current law DOES provide for the health of the mother of there is an emergency.”
Then why is Desantis ignoring the problem of doctors and hospitals refusing to provide these legal abortions? Are “prolifers” demanding common sense criminal laws that punish a doctor for forcing a woman to wait past the point that Desantis determines her eligible for an abortion? What criminal charges will denying a cancer patient like “Caroline”, (Amendment 4 ad), an immediate abortion (so that she can receive chemotherapy) carry? Attempted murder? What about denying a woman in ICU an abortion until she gets closer to dead? Kidnapping? Assault? Murder if she dies? Can the new laws be pushed through the legislature quickly to protect women and girls? (Like bathroom and trans treatments?) This is an emergency! IANAL, but it seems like “pro-lifers” and Desantis didn’t really think this through so well.
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