TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida legislative Democrats are making an attempt to determine what comes subsequent after assembly with Vice President Kamala Harris in Orlando on Thursday.
For about an hour, the lawmakers and Harris mentioned abortion entry in Florida and how you can shield it if state courts uphold a brand new 15-week ban with few exceptions. Members of the caucus mentioned Friday they felt heard.
“It was very much a holistic conversation,” incoming Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell mentioned. “The vice president took feedback from us in terms of the ideas that we have.”
Driskell mentioned the administration was eyeing quite a few methods to make use of its authority to protect abortion entry past its current executive order. Options included defending affected person journey between states or probably providing providers on federal property.
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“The feeling that I got … was that all options are on the table for this administration,” Driskell mentioned. “They want to be thoughtful. They want to be careful. They want to make maneuvers that are above legal reproach so that these are protections that can be lasting.”
The administration has but to announce additional plans.
Driskell mentioned officers had been nonetheless gathering concepts and dealing on a nationwide technique.
Anti-abortion teams, in the meantime, remained assured Florida’s new restrictions would preserve.
“The Supreme Court was very clear,” mentioned John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council. “This is a matter for the states, and there’s nothing that [President Biden] can do to sign into law by himself, without Congress, that is going to affect that.”
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Stemberger is a conservative advocate heading the FFPC. Instead of larger entry to abortion, he foresaw larger restrictions in the future.
Following this 12 months’s approval of a 15-week ban, Stemberger thinks the GOP-majority will go additional subsequent 12 months. That’s regardless of DeSantis having but to offer a full-throated endorsement of further restrictions and the state courts nonetheless mulling the present legislation’s legality.
“We pray that someday in our society will look back upon this, just in the same way we look back on slavery, and say this is horrific,” Stemberger mentioned. “How can we have ever done this to a class of people?”
In the finish, it could all hinge on Congress.
On Friday, the U.S. House voted to revive abortion rights nationwide. But— at the second — Democrats lack the votes wanted in the Senate to make it occur.
Many in the get together hope that can change throughout the midterm elections. Democrats have made abortion entry a key challenge heading into the November midterm elections, believing it could drive voters to the polls. Republicans are framing the election as a referendum on Biden’s first two years.
