South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Attack on abortion rights has gone too far
Here’s what the people behind the assault on reproductive rights expect to see soon: Doors slamming shut, with some trapping sinful doctors and even women in prison cells. A hard wall of restrictive laws in red states, including Florida, that first block all access to abortion, then attack the most effective means of birth control. A stifling sense of fear that puts women at the mercy of biological destiny.
But there’s another side the zealots don’t see and won’t comprehend. If they did, they would realize how wrong-headed they are. They would understand that their plans are hardening the resolve of the majority of Americans who feel the government should stay out of private decisions — including when and if to bear children.
They would understand that the current atmosphere is likely to prompt an increase in the number of Americans who feel compelled to end pregnancies they might otherwise have carried to term.
And where far-right ideologues hold control — as they do in Florida — they would see a populace rising up and preparing to tear the reins of power from their hands.
Liberty under attack
Americans of child-bearing age are scared, but not cowering. Far from it.
Start with a gut check on the prevailing view of abortion in this country. A Fox News poll in early August revealed that 60% of Americans disapproved of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. They support abortion access by a majority that goes as high as two-thirds, albeit with some restrictions.
Supporters of reproductive liberty also see the doors slamming shut in a way they never did prior to that shocking decision, despite more than a decade of attacks on access to reproductive health care that have gone beyond abortion to restrict contraceptive access.
Americans are paying attention now. They see abortion access crumbling in conservative states, including a recent report from a reproductive rights think tank finding that
43 clinics that offered abortion have closed in the past seven weeks in 11 states that had so-called “trigger” laws.
The list doesn’t include Florida, but we’re hearing about cases like the pregnant 16-yearold Escambia County resident caught in a fiendish dilemma: She had no parents, but was required by law to have parental consent for an abortion. A judge ruled she was too immature to terminate her pregnancy — yet mature enough to be a parent. Incredibly, an appeals court agreed.
We may never know the outcome of that case, but we should know soon whether Florida’s courts are willing to pretend that there’s no risk of irreparable harm in another onerous law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. Forcing people to carry unwanted pregnancies to term — even those caused by rape or incest — isn’t irreparable harm? Briefs are flying fast and furious in that case, which is now before Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ideologically stacked Florida Supreme Court.
Such a ridiculous decision would resonate hard with the majority of voters who understand that the Florida Constitution grants explicit privacy and self-determination rights that go far beyond the protections cobbled If together the court on is a federal willing level to ignore by Roe such v. Wade clear. language, it’s a sign that DeSantis’s judges have gone rogue. It could doom DeSantis’s future ambitions.
TikTok and the ticking clock
Restrictions could be stampeding dozens, perhaps hundreds or even thousands, of Floridians into a decision they really don’t want to make: Having abortions because they are too afraid to wait.
Because here’s what Florida leaders really
don’t see. While they’re watching talking heads on Fox News or even CNN recite arrests, harassment and abortion prohibitions across the country, Floridians of childbearing age are on TikTok and Instagram.
They see video clips from private pilots (including from Volusia County’s conservative-leaning Spruce Creek Fly-In community) offering to take them to blue states where abortion access is still unrestricted. They find thousands of heavily coded pledges from families offering to host women with a sudden need to go “camping.” They hear pledges of solidarity and support from posters as diverse as the youth group Gen Z for Change and the Finnish Parliament. Yes, the real Parliament. Of Finland.
These digitally outstretched hands — along with limited-access email lists that relay cries for help and draw on rapidly-growing abortion assistance funds — can get women to places where they can safely have abortions. But what they can’t provide is time.
Time is the one thing a person coping with an unplanned and potentially unwanted pregnancy needs. Because while far-right forces want to make it impossible to have an abortion, they make it hellishly difficult for low-income people to raise children. Many workers have no real guarantee of paid maternity leave, and even the most generous policies are skimpy. Long-term, raising a child is projected to cost upwards of $300,000, including costs of child care in homes where every parent is expected to work.
Under laws like Florida’s, the clock runs out fast. In states with outright bans, the only option is to terminate a pregnancy before anyone else realizes it exists. With no time to think about alternatives or line up support, more pregnancies will be terminated. Count on it.
Termination of power
As for the impact on those who think they are solidifying their power, two recent votes speak for themselves.
In July, 61% of voters in deep-red Kansas favored a new law protecting abortion rights. And this week, driven largely by abortion rights, Alaska voters blocked former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin from going to Congress, defying all projections by a healthy 3% margin.
Opponents of reproductive liberty are right in one critical area: American politics are on the verge of being remade by the timing of their savage attacks. They don’t see what’s coming, and if Americans vote in big numbers, they’re not going to like it.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.