Gabrielle Russon
In front of a national stage at the March for Life rally, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has framed himself as a champion for the pro-life movement, was inconsistent on his own history regarding abortion legislation.
DeSantis told the crowd he ran for re-election on the Heartbeat Protection Act and was proof that Republicans could get elected after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I ran on a pro-life platform on the Heartbeat Protection Act, and I won the largest victory that any Republican has ever won in the history of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
However, DeSantis actually campaigned on the state’s 15-week abortion ban, which he signed in April 2022. He was re-elected to his second term in November 2022 but didn’t sign the heartbeat legislation until April 2023, with little fanfare. That measure banned abortions once the fetus has a detectable heartbeat.
DeSantis used his speech Friday as an opportunity to slam The New York Times and bring up illegal immigration, which DeSantis has been pressuring lawmakers to address via a Special Session next week.
“So The New York Times had a hit piece going against this, and here was their headline: ‘Undocumented women ask: Will my unborn child be a citizen?’” DeSantis said. “So The New York Times is admitting it’s not just a clump of cells. Let’s welcome The New York Times to the pro-life movement.”
In his remarks, clocking in under 10 minutes with his wife and children next to him, DeSantis portrayed himself as the underdog up against public opinion in fighting against Amendment 4, which raised more than $100 million.
“The wind was in our face,” DeSantis told the crowd attending the rally in the cold January afternoon.
DeSantis spoke out against Amendment 4 during his daily press conferences as Governor last year and used his state power to fight the initiative by threatening TV stations playing a pro-Amendment 4 ad and requiring a lengthy “financial impact statement” to appear on the ballot. He also openly accused the political committee of ballot petition fraud.
“We barnstormed the state. I had physicians against Amendment 4. We had survivors of abortion talking against Amendment 4. You name it, we did it,” DeSantis said. “We even mobilized our state agencies and we ran public service announcements dispelling the lies that were being told about Florida’s heartbeat bill. But we were doing this, quite frankly, against the tide of public opinion.”
With 57% in favor, Amendment 4 fell short of the 60% of voter approval to pass.
6 comments
GeeWoo
January 24, 2025 at 2:19 pm
Gabrielle, you have an axe to grind, clearly. Grinding that axe in a “news report” is so obvious. We know better.
Rita Joseph
January 24, 2025 at 2:40 pm
No honorable system of justice can tolerate indefinitely the deliberate life-destroying premature eviction of a little daughter or son from her/his first home in her/his mother’s womb.
It should never be forgotten that elective abortion is the only medical procedure that involves two patients that has for its express purpose the direct killing of one of the patients.
Every procured abortion is an act of violence, albeit in a medical setting.
Lethal violence against children is never “necessary.” Violence against children is preventable. Before as well as after birth, children should not receive less protection than adults.
Their mothers’ personal and social needs can and should be met by non-violent means.
His Story
January 24, 2025 at 2:55 pm
“However, DeSantis actually campaigned on the state’s 15-week abortion ban, which he signed in April 2022″
Your facts are faulty. Note the following from a Tallahassee Democrat article of May, 2022:
1/”. . .and once said he’d go even further and back a “heartbeat” bill that effectively moves the cutoff for an abortion to roughly six weeks of pregnancy.”
2/ “Pushing measures like a heartbeat bill — which DeSantis backed in 2018 when he was campaigning — could help him in a presidential primary.”
Ocean Joe
January 24, 2025 at 5:03 pm
So why the continued Republican opposition to expansion of Medicaid which would help many of the less financially fortunate children born here in Florida?
JD
January 24, 2025 at 5:33 pm
Florida’s heartbeat law is nonsense, it ignores the health of the mother and tragic edge cases like my wife and twins.
Meanwhile, Republicans block Medicaid expansion that could help struggling kids, all while peddling the myth of ninth-month abortions.
They treat it as a moral issue, not a public health crisis.
When someone loses a wife or child to this law or watches a partner carry a rapist’s baby, they’ll blame the retribution on someone else moral failing.
It’s not the heat; it’s the stupidity.
Childless Cat Lady
January 24, 2025 at 7:24 pm
“….. if his lips are moving….”