DeSantis says little about 6-week abortion law hours before it goes into effect

With Florida’s six-week abortion law just hours away from going into effect, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said almost nothing about the significance of the policy change during a news conference in Tampa, suggesting that while he signed the controversial legislation, he’s never made a major effort to tout its benefits.

When the governor was asked his thoughts about the new law set to go into effect at midnight — and whether he agrees with congressional Republicans who have endorsed banning mifepristone, known as an “abortion pill” — DeSantis said:

“I’m not familiar with what they’re saying in Congress, I mean – we – the [Florida Supreme] Court ruled correctly that being able to provide protections for a baby that has a detectable heartbeat is lawful and constitutional. And I think that’s a noble effort and I think that’s something that will be very meaningful to folks who get a chance to enjoy this great race of life that we have.”

Numerous Republican members of the U.S. House endorsed a budget proposal last month that includes banning all medication abortions, such as mifepristone. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month about limiting its access, and GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump told TIME magazine on Tuesday that he had “strong views” about the access to mifepristone, but declined to say exactly what those are – for now.

“Well, I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going to explain,” Trump said, according to the transcript of the interview. “I’m not gonna say it yet. But I have pretty strong views on that. And I’ll be releasing it probably over the next week.”

Mifepristone is one of two pharmaceuticals used in medication abortions, which make up more than 63% of abortions nationwide, according to research from the Guttmacher Institute.

According to an Emerson College survey of 1,000 Florida registered voters conducted earlier this month, 57% of respondents said the six-week ban was too strict, while 28% said it was about right and another 15% saying it’s not strict enough. 

That same survey showed that a proposed constitutional amendment to restore the right for a woman to have an abortion up until the point of viability gets a plurality of support (42%), short of not only a majority, but well short of the 60% required for passage this November.

And on Tuesday in Tampa, DeSantis was much more expansive in discussing his opposition on the abortion-rights ballot initiative.

“People will sometimes say, ‘Yeah, I’m pro-life, I believe that, but let the doctor make the decision.’ People will say that in conjunction with the expectant mother. That amendment does not require a physician. You can have an abortion up until the moment of birth without a physician being involved. It says a ‘health care provider.’ Well, that could be a clerk at Planned Parenthood. That could be an acupuncturist. That could be anybody. [It] does not have to be a doctor. That is really, really extreme. And I don’t think that we’ve seen anything like that. And then I think that when you have an amendment that they wanted to go into Florida’s Constitution that will eliminate parental consent for minors? Why would you take away parental consent?”

The ballot summary language for Amendment 4 says that the measure “does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried criticized DeSantis’ comments about the abortion constitutional amendment and parental consent. 

“The biggest misinformation is coming from Ron DeSantis,” Fried said Tuesday afternoon during a gathering outside a federal courthouse in Tallahassee. “Ron DeSantis has gone out and said this is extreme, that it overrides parental notification, which I want to ask Ron DeSantis if he actually took reading classes in school because it’s very, very clear black and white in the language of the ballot initiative, that parental rights are still protected.” 

Meanwhile, Democrats in Florida and throughout the Southeast highlighted the fact that women’s reproductive healthcare throughout the entire region will be dramatically affected when the six-week ban goes into effect on Wednesday. 

“Access to reproductive healthcare is now effectively eliminated across the South,” said Fried during a Zoom conference call on Tuesday morning. “Florida joins more than 20 states across the country with extreme abortion bans in effect, since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Women will be turned away from hospital rooms and forced to drive for a day or more to get treatment, if they can make it that far. Starting tomorrow, they will have nowhere to go to get the emergency care they need, or they could end up in court to seek permission for the medical attention that they so desperately need.”

Also on the call were Virginia Democratic Party Chair Susan Swecker, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, and Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who also serves as chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, which already has a six-week ban on abortion. She said that currently women have been leaving Georgia for Florida for abortion access, but with Florida set to now have a six-week ban, those women will now likely have to go up to Virginia, which legally allows abortion up through the first two trimesters.

“But across the Deep South, there will be nowhere where women can go for the care that they need and deserve,” Williams said. “What we are saying is that women are trying to get the care that they need by having to travel hundreds of miles for healthcare.”

But while abortion rights supporters are bemoaning what is happening this week, anti-abortion activists are celebrating.

“The first thing I will do on the morning of Wednesday, May 1, will be to kiss the ground in Florida,” said Frank Pavone, the national director of the Titusville-based Priests for Life organization. “With the Heartbeat Protection Act going into effect, Florida is now safer for unborn children than at any time in the last 50 years.”

“On May 1st, Florida will become a sanctuary for life,” said Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel who argued against Amendment 4 before the Florida Supreme Court back in February. “The Heartbeat Law will save countless lives, some of whom may become world leaders in science, medicine, and technology that will benefit the world.”

Phoenix reporter Jackie Llanos contributed to this report.