I first saw this mentioned yesterday while on the computer with the news on TV playing and to be honest misunderstood what I was hearing. This morning as I browsed my news feed I was stunned by what I read. Still, according to an article by NBC News there aren’t merely Republicans in FL who believe in abortion rights, there are actual activists. More importantly, they are winning over other Republicans. That’s something that made me at least say “Wow!” However, that’s not the best part.
Jaymie Carter isn’t just a Republican. She’s been appointed by TWO FL Governors to sit as a Trustee of the State College of Florida. Yep. First by former Gov. and now Senator Rick Scott, and then by none other than “The Incredible Shrinking Presidential Candidate” aka Ron DeSantis! (She says she even voted for him) Take a minute to regain your composure before reading on.
Like so many other states Florida’s elected officials decided after the Dobbs decision to join the “Who can enact the harshest anti-abortion laws” sweepstakes. DeSantis signed a 6 week ban. You think HE cares what voters actually think and want? Especially women? Well, it turns out he’s getting some pushback and from unlikely sources, and not just Ms. Carter. Florida is a state that allows ballot initiatives and signatures are being gathered to put the right to access abortion on the ballot.
According to the linked article Carter is breaking with DeSantis and her Party on this issue:
“Women are concerned about what’s happening with our bodies and our right to choose. And there’s a lot of people that you wouldn’t think would be the pro-choice advocates, but they are,” she said. “And the government overreach, it’s huge right now.”
Unlike say Maine Senator Susan Collins Carter hasn’t engaged in the furrowing of her brow while expressing “deep concern”, but getting out there to work and work HARD to put abortion rights on the ballot. She’s been active in an effort to collect over 150,000 registered voters to sign a petition supporting the ballot amendment. If passed the amendment would bar the state from restricting abortion before viability, usually considered 24 weeks (which was the Roe standard) or “when necessary to protect the patient’s health. That part covers later term abortions that are sometimes necessary.
It will take 891,523 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Floridians Protecting Freedom is the group leading the ballot initiative and they report they’ve gathered and submitted over 1.3 million signatures so far. The FL Dept. of Elections says so far 687,699 signatures have been validated. The deadline is February 1 so with the holidays time is getting short but it sure looks to me like the good guys/gals are going to get the job done in time. That of course is the last thing DeSantis and his forced-birth fanatics want. He (and they) know damn well where the public, including in FL stand on this issue.
But he’s got long-time Republicans openly working to provide full abortion rights to Florida women. People like Carol Whitmore for example. According to the article she’s a member of three Republican clubs to include the Manatee Republican Executive Committee and the Bradenton Republican Club. In fact, she was a Manatee County commissioner for 16 years but lost lost her primary race to a guy who touted himself as “more conservative” including on the issue of abortion. Whitmore says she’s collected almost a hundred petitions supporting the abortion-rights ballot amendment. And that it’s friends and acquaintances, most of whom are Republicans and independents who are signing:
“I had to keep printing [petitions] I was getting so many people to support this,” Whitmore said. “The government and federal and state have kind of lost touch with the people that make the decisions. We got them elected, and some aren’t listening to us. So I think this will be proof, just like the state of Ohio and other states that were very conservative, that this is going to pass.”
It’s not all sunshine and roses in the sunshine state however. Florida is after all a very conservative state including, at least on the surface abortion. In fact, the state’s Attorney General has gone to the FL Supreme Court to obtain a ruling preventing the measure froma appearing on the ballot. There’s also the fact that in Florida the threshold for passage of a Constitutional amendment via this procedure is 60%. That’s a high bar, especially in a state like FL. On the other hand, I keep thinking about all those retirees, so many of them “snowbirds” who retired to FL from out of state. Lots of grandmas who took abortion rights as a given for much of their adult lives. I’ll bet they’re getting an earful from daughters and granddaughters on this!
I think it’s safe to say two things. The measure will make it onto the ballot and a strong majority will vote in favor of it. The real question is whether 60% will and that I’m not at all sure about. Still, Ms. Whitmore who I mentioned before had this to say:
“Everybody has the impression that … this ballot won’t pass in Florida, because we are so conservative,” she said. “I think that’s a misconception. This is something that a lot of people don’t talk about, but they know how they’re going to vote. And when you get behind that booth and do your thing — we’re going to speak up for ourselves.
We’ll have to wait and see. However in every state including red ones where voters could weigh in directly the GOP anti-abortion fanatics have had their butts handed to them. Let’s hope (and do what we can to help) this is another instance in which to give them yet another electoral “whuppin.” To tell them if they don’t approve of abortion then don’t have one. Just don’t impose their beliefs on those who do want or sometimes NEED that particular form of medical care.
“This is something that a lot of people don’t talk about, but they know how they’re going to vote. And when you get behind that booth and do your thing — we’re going to speak up for ourselves.”
Just note, Denis, this is a VERY important point, especially when it comes to how valid polling can be. It was true in the 1990s in Colorado when the state put local gay rights protections up for a vote. The polls were pretty strong showing that the voters–by roughly 60-40–were going to let cities keep their protections on the books and then the election came and the actual vote results came in with the voters going the opposite way by nearly 55-45. Why? The post-election analysis suggested the poll respondents answered the way they thought the pollsters wanted to hear rather than what they really felt.
And the same thing in 2016. ALL the “legitimate” pollsters were telling us that Hillary would win an overwhelming victory–the worst I think I read was at least with 55% of the vote. That ALL those “wavering” Democratic and independent (and pissed-off Bernie supporters) voters who “didn’t really trust” Hillary would NEVER really vote third party and that the “Never Trumpers” would rally behind some other “conservative” alternate or would be so disgusted that they’d stay home (or, at worst, not vote for President but would vote in down-ticket races). And we all saw what happened. Sure, some of the results came from the dirty trick of “suddenly” reopening the email investigation (and, so much for the “no investigations during a campaign” BS that Trump is CONSTANTLY trying to get away with now) but a lot of it was because the pollsters were being lied to by people who were hiding their real opinions until they got in the voting booth.
Your point is well taken. However, in 2016 I not only don’t recall polls showing Clinton with 55% but do seem to recall in the final weeks the pundit class was talking more like two to three percent Clinton over Trump in national polling. Of course what really matters is swing states due to the EC. The pundits were in fact confident Clinton would squeeze out a win but there were qualifiers about being within or close to the margin of error. I don’t know, but I think a lot of them were getting spooked when after the Access Hollywood tape Trump’s numbers didn’t crater.
With polling on abortion since Dobbs numbers have held up pretty well, and if there has been error it’s been because voters in some red states had been reluctant to admit they were in FAVOR of abortion rights. The fanatics aren’t getting the message and keep doubling down. As a result they are keeping up motivation on our side to mobilize on the issue and, as it looks from the article I cited and other ones it’s not just those “Republican suburban soccer moms” in the GOP and Independent ranks who are starting to openly word to expand reproductive rights. Still, 60% is a high bar to clear in a conservative state. Anger at DeSantis might help even though he won’t be on the ballot. I think it’s safe to say the asshats down there WILL put up a GOP candidate who opposes abortion, maybe even rails against it. That person may well win the Gov. race because too many Floridians have gone down the conservative rabbit hole and simply can’t bring themselves to vote for ANY Democrat. Plus there’s the whole low taxes thing which too many believe. However, the abortion amendment is a separate line on the ballot. I have no doubt it will get well above 50%. It’s getting at least 60% I’ve got doubts about.
“…the state’s Attorney General has gone to the FL Supreme Court to obtain a ruling preventing the measure from appearing on the ballot.”
Of course he would.
What is the natter with these people?
Freedom is their own rant, but when it comes to someone else’s freedom…?!?
Be interesting to find out how he could get the FL SC to rule on not allowing a ballot initiative from appearing on a, uhm, ballot?
I think the terminology means different things to each side. One example is “truth”. The religious right believes truth is a thing, gods word. To us, it means actual truth as in to tell the truth. Freedom to us is inclusive, to the right it is theirs only and tied to their issues.