Democrats Hit the Road in Response to Florida Supreme Court Abortion Rulings

The Florida Supreme Court’s recent abortion rulings were on the April 2 agenda for House Democrats and the Biden-Harris campaign as former President Donald Trump hosted a border policy rally in western Michigan.

House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) took their weekly Steering and Policy Committee meeting on the road for the first time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the Broward County Government Center.

The first ruling allowed a citizen initiative to appear on the 2024 ballot for an amendment that would enshrine abortion access in the Florida Constitution.

The second ruling upheld Florida’s 2022 legislatively-enacted 15-week abortion ban that was stalled by pending litigation.

As a result, Florida’s six-week abortion ban from 2023 will take effect on May 1, as it could not become law until the state’s Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit contesting the 15-week ban.

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Mr. Jeffries and Ms. Wasserman Schultz were joined by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, Reps. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and also several doctors and citizens who spoke about their experiences and opinions regarding Florida’s abortion laws.

Democrats volleyed two primary arguments at the April 2 hearing: first, that the medical “exceptions” in Florida’s abortion bans that allow abortions to save the life of the mothers are unclear and inconclusive; and secondly, the way the law is worded, they argue, makes it difficult or impossible to administer “life-saving abortion care” when physicians worry the pregnancy could result in the mother’s death.

The press call focused on Florida being competitive and “in play” for the 2024 election despite President Trump’s 2016 and 2020 statewide victories.

It featured comments from campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), and Florida House of Representatives Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell.

Vice President Kamala Harris also released a statement the same day condemning the Florida Supreme Court for its ruling on the 15-week abortion ban.

“This decision means that millions of women in Florida and across the Southeast will likely live in an even more cruel reality where they face a choice between putting their lives at risk or traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to get care,” she said.

“Donald Trump created this health care crisis, and he has no plans to stop now.”

Banning Abortion ‘Outright’

Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s opening testimony focused on the 2022 Supreme Court Dobb’s decision that overthrew Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enact abortion bans.

“This ruling unleashed an avalanche of far-right, anti-choice policies with one clear goal: to ban abortion outright,” she said at the April 2 “field hearing.”

The congresswoman argued the ruling put “judges and politicians in women’s doctors’ offices, at the pharmacy counters, and in their homes,” and allowed other states alongside Florida to establish their own abortion bans.

She argued that after Florida’s six-week abortion ban takes effect on May 1, “abortion care will become almost impossible to receive in Florida, with almost no exceptions.”

“But there is hope, Floridians will have a chance to make their voices heard this November and send these extremist policies back to the 20th century where they should have stayed,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz added, referring to the proposed constitutional amendment that would block the Florida government from enacting any laws prohibiting abortion up to the “point of viability,” which some argue is 23 to 24 weeks after conception.

She said “patients, not politicians,” should have freedom to make their own health care decisions, “full stop.”

Ms. Wasserman Schultz was emotional while recounting difficulties becoming pregnant that forced her and her husband to use in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive their daughter.

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, many worry how it could affect the entire IVF industry moving forward, especially if other states follow suit.

Florida ‘Ground Zero’ in Abortion Debate

Like Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Jeffries noted their work on the House Democrat-led “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which would create federal rights for patients and providers to guarantee abortion access and create rules against “medically unnecessary” restrictions on abortion care.

As for the location for the committee’s first “field hearing,” Mr. Jeffries affirmed to attendees why they chose the Sunshine State.

“Florida is now ground zero in the fight to protect a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions.

“And as House Democrats, we are here to make clear that we stand with you to protect reproductive freedom,” he said.

The Democrat Minority Leader said “reproductive freedom is under assault” in Florida after the state enacted its 15-week and six-week abortion bans, and pledged Congressional Democrats would “stand with” Floridians in convincing voters to pass the constitutional amendment for abortion access in November.

He also blamed Republicans in the Florida Legislature, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, for creating the laws banning abortions in the state and also a blueprint for a “nationwide abortion ban.”

“But we can stop them. Together we can stop them from criminalizing reproductive freedom. Together, we can stop them from outlawing contraception. Together, we can stand up for reproductive freedom forever,” Mr. Jeffries said.

However, Florida was not the only state discussed in the hearing. Mr. Kildee highlighted the citizen initiative that enshrined abortion access in his home state of Michigan in the 2022 election with 56.66 percent of the vote.

“And in that same election, pro-choice candidates were elected up and down the ballot, including for governor, for lieutenant governor, for secretary of state, for attorney general, and for the first time in 40 years—Michiganders elected a pro-choice majority in the State House of Representatives and state Senate,” he said.

Mr. Kildee also criticized President Trump for taking credit for the end of Roe v. Wade and worries about the restrictions it could place on future women.

“As a father, as a grandfather, I refuse to let my daughter and granddaughter live in a world where they have less rights than their mothers and grandmothers did,” he said.

Tearful Testimony

While holding back tears, Deborah Dorbert, a wife and mother from Florida, recounted how Florida’s abortion laws forced her to carry her second child to term after doctors discovered during a routine ultrasound that the unborn child had failed to develop kidneys.

Ms. Dorbert experienced pregnancy complications called “Potter’s syndrome” resulting in no amniotic fluid in her uterus and no kidney development in her unborn child. Doctors told her the baby would survive for only a few brief minutes—at most an hour—after birth.

Because of Florida’s laws that only allow late-term abortions when the pregnancy explicitly threatens the life of the mother, Ms. Dorbert said doctors told her their hands were tied.

As hard as it was on her mental health to carry the baby to term knowing it would not survive, she said it was even harder communicating this with her 4-year-old son.

“How do you tell a 4-year-old that their sibling is going to die?” Ms. Dorbert said.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz asked her, “So Florida law forced you to carry the baby until 37 weeks with no amniotic and a certainty that he would not survive?”

“Yes,” Ms. Dorbert responded.

Doctors Rebuke Ruling

Those from the public commenting on Florida’s abortion bans included two doctors, each frustrated with how the laws would affect the way they administer care.

Dr. H. Joan Waitkevicz, an abortion care provider, complained that the only medical exception for abortions past six weeks requires a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman” and called the standard “terrible.”

“There is no exception for suicidality,” she said.

The center also said in 2020 that suicidal ideation is “relatively common among pregnant women.”

Dr. Ian Joseph Bishop, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Miami, said the wording in Florida’s abortion laws is difficult to interpret as a physician looking at it from a legal perspective.

“We’re no longer basing our medical judgment on the clinical needs of our patients. We’re basing on what we understand the legal situation to be,” he said.

Dr. Bishop said the laws create “chaos” for physicians.

“Physicians feel squeezed between the law and their medical responsibility to care for patients,” and because of fears over felony charges, doctors are “erring on the side of inaction and inaction has consequences.”

“Now we wait for complications to arise prior to providing evidence-based branded and health care?” He added.

Lastly, Dr. Bishop criticized the law’s wording that only allows abortions past six weeks to “avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function other than a psychological function.”

“I ask, ‘What does that mean in a medical context?’ Who defines ’substantial?’ Doesn’t every pregnancy pose a risk?” He asked.

As House Democrats wrapped up the Broward County “field hearing,” the Biden-Harris campaign hosted a press call with comments from Ms. Chávez Rodriguez, Mr. Cooper, Ms. Williams, and Ms. Driskell.

Ms. Chávez Rodriguez, the Biden-Harris campaign manager, said President Trump is “directly to blame” for abortion bans enacted in multiple U.S. states and emphasized President Biden’s promise to “never stop fighting to protect reproductive freedom.”

Ms. Driskell, the Democrat leader in Florida’s House of Representatives, also stumped for President Biden’s reelection campaign, saying “Americans want more freedom, not less.”

“Today, I’m here to say our work has just begun as we continue to fight for our rights,” she added.

Ms. Driskell also emphasized her support for the proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion access in the Florida Constitution.

“In order to [get it on the ballot], they have to collect over a million petitions. And it was Democrats, Republicans, and [independents] who signed this petition. So this is a big deal for Floridians,” she said.

Mr. Cooper—the Democrat Governor of North Carolina—said the group supporting abortion access is growing.

“I think that this is a broad coalition that’s only getting broader. It’s not just limited to women who have to go through this. It also includes their families, their friends,” he said.

The Biden-Harris campaign emphasized how they see Florida as “competitive” and “in play” for the 2024 election now that two popular constitutional amendments are on the ballot—the one ensuring abortion access and another that would legalize recreational marijuana.

While President Trump carried Florida in 2016 and 2020, Democrats hope to flip the state if enough Floridians vote in November.

The ad featured comments from President Trump regarding the Supreme Court 2022 Dobb’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Because for 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it,” President Trump says in the video clip featured in the ad.

President Biden, in response, accused the former president of not “trusting” women.

“In 2016, Donald Trump ran to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, in 2024, he’s running to pass a national ban on a woman’s right to choose.

“I am running to make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again, so women have a federal guarantee to the right to choose. Donald Trump doesn’t trust women. I do,” President Biden said in the ad.

President Trump, on March 19, expressed support for a 15-week national abortion ban after previously warning other Republicans that backing such a measure could backfire politically.

“The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15. And I’m thinking in terms of that. And it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable. But people are really, even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at,” he said on the “Side & Friends in the Morning” show on WABC.

However, the former president also seemed reluctant towards a federal ban, arguing it should be a “state issue” instead.

“Everybody agrees—you’ve heard this for years—all the legal scholars on both sides agree: It’s a state issue. It shouldn’t be a federal issue; it’s a state issue,” he added.

President Trump in February said his potential future administration would “negotiate a deal” on abortion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.