Less than two weeks before election day, Orlando women leaders and reproductive health care advocates including an IVF doctor held a press conference to call out Republican Senator Rick Scott’s attacks on reproductive freedom.
“We need to stay in our lanes. Physicians are not policymakers and politicians are not physicians,” said Dr. Mark Trolice, M.D, Director of The IVF Center.
The Democrats said that Senator Scott has repeatedly endorsed Florida’s abortion ban, which eliminates reproductive health care access before most women know they’re pregnant, with virtually no exceptions. They say Rick Scott also pledged to vote to keep it in place.
“Governor Rick Scott made clear that when he became Senator, and now in his bid for reelection, that if he ever had the chance to pass a national abortion ban, he would do that. He is so out of touch with the positions of the majority of Floridians — even out of touch with his own party. He’s demonstrated a complete disregard for our fundamental freedoms and access to reproductive care,” said Democratic Orlando State Rep. Anna Eskamani.
Democrats pointed out that the Republican Florida Senator has voted for a national abortion ban and repeatedly voted against bipartisan legislation to establish federal protections for contraception and IVF. They argued that Senator Scott has been “spending millions lying to Floridians about his extreme anti-choice agenda.”
“Right now in Florida we’re living under one of the most extreme abortion bans in the nation — a ban that has left women without lifesaving health care, stripped away fundamental rights, and offers almost no exceptions,” said Orlando State Rep. Rita Harris, also a Democrat. “This extreme law is putting medical providers in impossible, dangerous situations. And let’s not forget that this is a ban that Rick Scott proudly said he would have signed into law if he was governor. Even if we pass Amendment 4, Rick Scott won’t stop there. For years, Rick Scott worked to overturn Roe v. Wade. He worked to take away the freedom to access reproductive health care, and he will push for a national abortion ban.”
“I never thought I would be living in a state and raising daughters under one of the strictest abortion bans in the country,” said Barbie Harden Hall, Democratic Congressional Candidate for FL-11. “I suffered from high-risk pregnancy complications that affected my life and my health, requiring that I undergo two preterm cesarean sections for my children. Politicians like Rick Scott and Daniel Webster do not understand, nor do they care, to see past their own extreme beliefs to see the danger and the pain that they are putting women through.”
