Friday, Nov. 10, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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The debate over abortion rights isn’t hard to understand.
The issue boils down to basics: Who gets to make one of the hardest and most personal decisions a woman has to confront in her life? A choice that affects her physical and mental health forever.
Under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican politicians in Florida decided last legislative session that they have the ultimate say — imposing a near-ban on abortion, without giving any consideration of the opposition.
For years, the GOP has been inching toward total control of this vital health care right, first coming after Planned Parenthood with bogus accusations, then fighting to limit abortion access and eliminate exceptions for rape or incest.
Now, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade’s constitutional protection, lawmakers went quite far this year.
In Florida, the legislature passed, and DeSantis signed in a telling private ceremony in his office, a near ban by instituting a six-week limit on access. The restriction means that by the time many women find out they’re pregnant, they no longer can legally get an abortion in the state — and that any doctor performing the procedure could go to prison.
Now, Republicans like DeSantis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody are trying to keep voters from fighting back, Kansas-style, by preventing voters from putting abortion on the ballot — and winning constitutional protection.
Did Republicans really think women and their male allies would sit back and allow politicians to take over bodily rights, family decisions and health care choices — without pushing back?
A petition to put an abortion rights amendment on the ballot in Florida has gathered an impressive 500,000 of the 891,523 voter signatures needed by the Feb. 1 deadline. It’s similar to the one that passed in Ohio this week and would prevent the outright abortion ban the GOP ultimately wants — ensuring constitutional access against political whim.
The committee behind the petition has raised almost $5 million in six months. Both are strong indicators of voter support.
Moody claims that the ballot initiative is an effort to “hoodwink” voters and she calls the all-American democratic practice of activism to secure rights, “war.”
Voters are being hoodwinked alright. But it’s not by women seeking access to safe, legal abortion.
It’s by aGOP doing the bidding of the wealthy, ultra-conservative Christian lobby buying political power — and doesn’t care if studies show that the women most affected by abortion bans are poor and dark-skinned.
Republicans are running scared of voters’ will and complex points of view on abortion. They’re afraid voters will exercise their say and vote in favor of constitutionally protecting abortion in Florida and elsewhere.
The GOP has put forth no valid legal argument for seeking to quash people’s right to make their voice heard by unilaterally taking the proposed amendment off the ballot — especially before the committee has completed gathering signatures.
It’s not a democratic move on Moody’s part, but autocratic Republicans are beyond caring about democracy and its institutions.
It’s their way or the highway, voters need not opine and neither should Democratic lawmakers. The abortion debate proved there’s no room for bipartisanship or working to reach a consensus.
Republicans assume that in a blindingly red state, the people will keep voting for them in support of an increasingly intrusive, extremist agenda. That’s how it’s been in recent elections, but in the case of abortion restrictions, families are experiencing what it’s like to live under someone else’s choice when it’s their daughter, wife or girlfriend’s life on the line.
That’s when the public debate becomes deeply personal — and choice matters.
If Moody — or any other woman, for that matter — doesn’t want an abortion, she doesn’t have to get one. Under restrictions, women and families have no choice.
It is that simple.
No party, no politician should be making the decision for the woman who feels that having one more child may kill her. Or, for the teen swept away by hormones and false promises of eternal love whose future suddenly is a question mark.
With extremist DeSantis vying for the GOP presidential nomination and the privilege of leading the nation, Florida’s abortion rights debate is a matter of national importance.
Voters everywhere must pay attention.
Fabiola Santiago is a columnist for the Miami Herald.
