By EFE
02 Apr 2024, 11:34 AM EDT
Washington – US President Joe Biden on Tuesday described as “outrageous” the decision of the Florida Supreme Court that has led to the reactivation of a six-week abortion ban implemented by Governor Ron de Santis.
“It is outrageous. Florida’s bans – as well as proposals from Republican elected officials across the country – are putting the health and lives of millions of women at risk,” Biden said in a statement.
On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court decided to uphold Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban and with its decision revived a six-week abortion ban – when most women do not know they are pregnant – approved by Florida lawmakers. Florida last year.
This six-week rule promoted by Governor Ron de Santis was suspended, waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision on the fifteen weeks, and will now come into force within 30 days.
“These extreme laws take away women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions and threaten doctors with prison sentences simply for providing the health care they were trained to provide,” Biden added.
The Florida Supreme Court also decided that the issue of abortion will be on the November 5 ballot, so citizens will decide at the polls whether they want to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.
“Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose, including in Florida, where voters will have the opportunity to make their voices heard in support of a reproductive freedom ballot initiative this November “said the president.
His Administration, he added, will remain steadfast in its commitment to protecting reproductive freedom throughout the country and will continue to ask Congress to pass a law that restores the protections of Roe v. Wade – the ruling that protected abortion at the federal level and which was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022 – in all states.
In another press release, Vice President Kamala Harris stated that Florida’s decision means that millions of women “will likely live in an even crueler reality in which they will have to choose between putting their lives at risk or traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to receive attention.”
“Doctors will continue to be threatened with criminal prosecution for doing their job, and women may be prohibited from receiving the medical care they need in the event of rape or incest,” she added.
Harris accused former President Donald Trump of creating this crisis and having no plans to stop it.
“For Donald Trump, it is not enough that more than 1 in 3 women of reproductive age in the United States live in a state with a ban. “It is not enough that millions of women in the United States have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers,” he stated.
The future Republican Party candidate for the November elections to the White House has recently expressed his apparent support for banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, although with exceptions.
Since, in June 2022, the US Supreme Court annulled the 1973 ruling, which de facto legalized abortion throughout the country, this has become the main issue that has divided Democrats and Republicans at the polls.
“If Donald Trump has his way, he will destroy abortion care in every state in the country, and he has plans to do so. “President Biden and I will do everything in our power to stop it and restore women’s reproductive freedom,” said Harris, who has toured the country on reproductive rights in recent weeks.
Abortion is set to be one of the main campaign issues for Democrats. In fact, the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign launched a new ad titled “Trust” this Tuesday, in which they accuse Donald Trump of boasting about overturning Roe v. Wade and plotting to ban abortion nationwide if he is re-elected.
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