Biden raises alarm on abortion in Fla.
Blames Trump for state’s six-week ban
TAMPA, Fla. — President Joe Biden on Tuesday blamed Donald Trump for Florida’s upcoming abortion ban and other restrictions across the country, arguing Trump has created a “health care crisis for women all over this country.”
Biden’s campaign events at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa placed the president in the epicenter of the latest battle over abortion restrictions.
Florida’s six-week abortion ban is poised to go into effect May 1 at the same time that state voters are gearing up for a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. Biden said that millions of women are facing “pain and cruelty.”
“But it’s not inevitable. We can stop it. When you vote, we can stop it,” he said.
On Tuesday, Biden chronicled increasing medical concerns for women in the two years since the Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections.
“There was one person who was responsible for this nightmare,” Biden said. “And he’s acknowledged it and he brags about it — Donald Trump.”
Biden said Trump, who of late has said abortion is a matter for states to decide, is concerned voters will now hold him accountable.
“Folks, the bad news for Trump is that we are going to hold him accountable,” Biden said.
Organizers of the abortion ballot measure say they collected nearly 1.5 million signatures to put the issue before voters, although the state stopped counting at just under a million. Roughly 891,500 signatures were required. Of the total number of signatures, about 35 percent were from either registered Republican voters or those not affiliated with a party, organizers said.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a question on whether the former president, a Florida voter, would oppose or support the ballot measure. In an NBC interview last September, Trump called Florida’s six-week ban “terrible.” But he has repeatedly highlighted the three conservative-leaning justices he chose for the high court who cleared the way to overturn Roe.
Republicans were dismissive of the Biden campaign and the broader Democratic Party’s efforts to use abortion as a political cudgel, arguing that other issues will matter more with voters in November.
“Biden must have forgotten that thousands of Americans have fled from extremist Democrat policies to prosperous and pro-life states like Florida,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley.
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, a Republican, said at a news conference before the visit that the abortion amendment was written in a way to deliberately mislead voters.
“All I can tell you is Floridians are not buying what Joe Biden is selling and in November we’re going to play an instrumental role in sending him back to Delaware where he belongs,” he said.