Ban backers included 64 percent of Democrats.īut we’re not talking late-term abortion here. While there are plenty of hardliners on both sides of the abortion fight, most people would not want Florida to go the way of New York.Ī survey of 1,000 voters released last month by The Tarrance Group found that 76 percent of respondents support prohibiting late-term abortions. Mississippi is not much like New York, and both are probably grateful for that.įlorida is a quilt within that quilt. It would send its regulation back to the states.Īmerican states are a red-and-blue quilt of differing cultures and values. Overturning Roe would not criminalize abortion. The pro-life movement is marshaling a head-on assault on Roe.
That position hasn’t changed, but the political atmosphere has. We’d like to think lawmakers were adhering to the restrained position of constituents who weren’t ready for such a societal jolt. We don’t particularly care what Amy Schumer thinks about Florida’s abortion status, but such tension comes when lawmakers push emotional issues to the extreme.īills that significantly limited or banned abortions have traditionally failed in the Florida Legislature. About 50 Hollywood actors wrote an open letter threatening to push the film industry to boycott Georgia. When Georgia recently passed a fetal-heartbeat law, several lawmakers came to the House with wire coat hangers and bleach, referencing measures women have taken to induce abortions. The law Mississippi passed last month makes no such exceptions. But at least the Florida proposals allow abortions if the woman is a victim of incest or rape. Blue battles, there is rarely middle ground. Dennis Baxley said New York’s move prompted him to file a fetal heartbeat bill. Democratic legislators and pro-choice advocates knew it would never fly, but that didn’t stop the tit-for-tat strategizing. Unfortunately, moderation has become a dirty word in our polarized times.įearing the Supreme Court might overturn Roe, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont enshrined third-trimester abortion rights into state law. With a deeply contentious issue like abortion, we think the law should reflect that. They have won at the ballot box, but the narrow victory margins show Florida is a moderate state. That’s about 24 weeks too late for largely pro-life Republicans. So does Florida’s current law, which permits abortion up to the 24 th week of pregnancy. Support for allowing the procedure plummets later in a pregnancy, but it increases for first-trimester abortion.įor all the criticism and acrimony Roe has engendered, it’s incremental approach aligns with the feelings of most Americans. A Gallup poll found that 64 percent want Roe to stand. A Pew Research Center poll found 55 percent think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The strategy might work, but Florida legislators should not join in if they want to carry out the majority’s wishes.Ī Quinnipiac University poll last year found that 63 percent of Americans agreed with Roe. States are essentially throwing legislative spaghetti against the wall, hoping one of the abortion cases sticks and becomes a test case that will overturn Roe. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.
The ensuing conservative shift has buoyed pro-life hopes the Supreme Court will reconsider Roe v. The impetus is Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the U.S. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, is co-sponsoring the House bill. Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne, is co-sponsoring the Senate bill.
0 kommentar(er)
