In abortion debate, don’t forget victims of abuse

The Legislature’s proposed abortion ban has an unseen and often ignored aspect, women who are victims of intimate partner violence and the support of the influx of babies born after these bans.

Women trying to escape IPV who suddenly realize they are pregnant will now be tied to their abuser and will often endure years, if not decades, of non-physical abuse. This abuse will manifest in many ways.

That starts with harassment, direct and indirect. Abusers who share a child with their victim will often use the courts to force contact or they will disobey court orders to force that contact. Or, as is extremely common, these perpetrators will refuse to pay court-ordered child support and/or alimony — studies have shown Florida already has as much as $6 billion in unpaid support.

Our state and court system has shown they are woefully unable to either provide protection to the victims of abuse or to enforce support orders. Adding more children to this mix will only create more situations like the recent domestic-violence homicide in Brevard County.

Rather than create the inevitable backlog in court systems , the increased poverty of the women and the children forced into existence, and the post-separation murders that will surely increase — why don’t we as a state work towards fixing these issues that already exist and are being ignored? There are 6 billion reasons to say no to Senate Bill 300 and no real good reason to say yes, other than for legislators to pander to their rabid base.

Jennifer Dotson Deltona