Blame for 15-week abortion ban lies squarely with Republicans
In regard to the Sun Sentinel’s recent editorial “Assault on abortion rights may be just the beginning,” we would like to offer both support for your position and take great exception to the offensive notion that Democrats or our leader, Lauren Book, “folded.”
In support, we agree that Florida’s new 15-week abortion ban is only the beginning when it comes to state-level GOP efforts to further strip women of their right to privacy and the right to control their own bodies when it comes to reproductive choices.
The extreme anti-choice and anti-women agenda adopted by the current iteration of the Republican Party has become a gloves-off assault on freedom and the right for women to make their own health care decisions. We should ask, “What’s next, access to birth control?”
For those of us who agree that abortions should be, to quote former President Bill Clinton, “safe, legal and rare,” let us not forget who is pushing this extreme agenda in the Sunshine State: Republicans led by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Standing united in deep practical and philosophical opposition, Florida Senate Democrats fought with everything we had to defend women’s rights and reproductive choice. For the editorial board to cast aspersions on Senate Democrats, and in particular our designated leader and Ruth’s List-endorsed Senator Book, is profoundly unfair and misguided.
We were there. We were in the battle. We supported our leader. Full stop. Senate Democrats, led by Senator Book, made three attempts at carving out exceptions for survivors of rape, incest and human trafficking. The Republicans did not want those exceptions in the law. Period.
You wrongly state that, “the Senate’s minority leader, Lauren Book, promised Republicans she would not ask for a roll call on an amendment to add at least that measure of decency. Perhaps an exception would have passed had the Republican majority not been allowed to evade accountability with an unrecorded voice vote.”
Decency? What decency is there in a law that tells women what they can do with their bodies and cuts off access to their reproductive rights after 15 weeks? Quibbling about amendment tactics when the horrendous act is the bill itself is like Republicans focusing on the Supreme Court leak instead of the outrageousness of the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade.
To set the record straight, every Republican — every single one — is on the record voting for an extreme anti-abortion bill without exception for rape, incest and human trafficking. That is the legacy they must defend.
We are grateful for Lauren’s bravery and vulnerability in sharing her own deeply personal story of sexual assault to appeal to the humanity of our colleagues across the aisle. We are proud of her standing toe-to-toe against those who were unrelenting in rolling back women’s rights and the rights of vulnerable victims. Perhaps this is why she has been endorsed by the leading pro-choice organization in Florida, Ruth’s List, and why the Republican Senate President stripped Lauren of her committee chairmanship in retaliation for her outspoken advocacy on abortion access.
Review the tapes, watch the debate, see how the entire caucus stood side-by side and unified, and we believe that Floridians will agree we did everything we could to stop this assault on women’s rights. We would ask you to do the same and in doing so, we hope you will correct the record and put the blame squarely on the shoulders of those who earned it.
Sens. Lori Berman of Boynton Beach and Tina Polsky of Boca Raton are Democratic members of the Florida Senate.
(Editor’s Note: The Sun Sentinel respects the views of both senators and stands by its editorial on HB 5, the 15-week abortion ban. In a Senate debate on March 2, Book delivered an impassioned speech against the bill and for an amendment to add an exception in cases of rape, incest and human trafficking. As the record shows, Book told her colleagues: “We’re not going to raise hands on this amendment. We’re going to do a voice vote.” Senate President Wilton Simpson ruled the amendment failed, but supporters sounded more numerous, and Democratic senators did not demand a roll call vote, as they could have. We agree with Berman and Polsky that voters should watch the tape.)