At six weeks, a human fetus is about the size of a baked bean. It has a tail. It does not have a heart and therefore it does not have a heartbeat. Nevertheless, Florida governor Ron DeSantis went ahead and signed a six-week abortion ban on Thursday, titled the "Heartbeat Protection Act" because neither he nor anyone who supports the bill understands basic fetal development.
DeSantis signed the bill in the presence of a group of giddy women fresh off a Talbots factory outlet shopping spree, who could all very likely afford to hop on a plane and travel out of state to get an abortion should the need arise.
“Signed the Heartbeat Protection Act, which expands pro-life protections and devotes resources to help young mothers and families.”
— Ron DeSantis (@Ron DeSantis) 1681441472
Some people (or at least one Florida GOP operative and DeSantis critic) were apparently surprised by this, given the fact that he is expected to run for President and the vast majority of the country is not exactly into the idea of six-week abortion bans.
Via Miami Herald:
“He is clearly on the right side of the primary politics,” said Mac Stipanovich, a DeSantis critic and longtime GOP operative in the state. “And he’s clearly on the wrong side of the national politics.”
In an interview, Stipanovich said he was dumbfounded by DeSantis’ desire to sign the abortion law and take other sharp-edged ideological positions this year, arguing that it’ll do little to help him defeat former President Donald Trump in a GOP primary but could cost him in a general election against Democratic President Joe Biden.
“I can’t follow his thinking,” he said. “I can’t understand what he’s doing. He’s certainly already conservative enough for today’s Republican Party.”
Well, 56 percent of Floridians support legal abortion under all/most circumstances. 54 percent believe that transgender children should have access to gender affirming care. That does not seem to have affected anything for him in Florida, so it stands to reason that he doesn't believe it would affect anything for him nationally. To boot, it is hardly as if any other Republicans running are going to have more moderate positions. Trump may have criticized Republican politicians for losing elections by going too hard on abortion, but he's the one who really made "jail people for having abortions" and the "due date abortions" nonsense mainstream ideas in the Republican party.
I hate to rain on any "He's totally doomed now!" parades, but it's hardly as if the party is going to be running Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, two of the only national Republicans with moderate views on abortion. Anyone they go with is likely to have just as, if not more of, an extreme view on abortion as DeSantis. The MO of the GOP is to proceed as if everyone agrees with them on abortion (and everything else) no matter what the reality is. Why? Because it works and is very effective. If you act as if everyone agrees with you, those who may be on the fence assume that they must be missing something and are then more likely to go along.
In better news, however, Arizona's Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes has established a unit in her office specifically focused on reproductive rights. Mayes made it clear in her campaign that, although the state's current law bans abortion after 15 weeks, she had no intention of prosecuting anyone for it — and this unit shows that she has no intention of letting anyone else prosecute anyone for it either.
The unit is being led by attorney Hayleigh Crawford, who along with others will be monitoring cases throughout the state to ensure that no one is actually being prosecuted under that law or other laws regulating abortion, such as a 2021 law that bans people from having abortions if the fetus has genetic abnormalities.
Via Arizona Agenda:
In addition to Crawford, the unit will likely include attorneys from other parts of the AG’s Office, including people from the state government division, the civil rights unit and the criminal division. The unit intends to work proactively to protect abortion access while also reacting to and intervening in ongoing cases.
In Arizona, no county attorneys have tried to prosecute doctors over abortion since the 15-week ban was affirmed by the courts. The law allows for charges against those who perform abortions, but not those who get them. If and when a county attorney brings charges, Mayes said, her office will work to shut it down. Mayes has previously said her office will never prosecute anyone over abortion.
“We will vigorously oppose any effort by a county attorney to prosecute doctors, nurses, pharmacists, midwives or anyone for abortion care in the state of Arizona. We will absolutely fight that in court,” she said. “We're going to be making it clear to county attorneys that any attempt to prosecute these cases is inappropriate and will not go unanswered by this office.”
Good for them!
While anti-abortion groups and DAs in the state are still trying to push for their "right" to deprive Arizona citizens of the right to seek abortion care, Mayes and other Democrats in the state are hoping these laws will be obsolete by next year when they hope to take the issue to the ballot box. In every chance Americans have had to vote on ballot measures related to abortion so far, abortion rights have won out — so the chances are pretty good they will in Arizona as well.
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Yeah. Abortions were more readily available.
People often panic when they find a formal silverware setting in front of them. Dear ron: Always move in from the outside utensil. You'll still be a fascist covered in pudding but your manners will improve.