President Joe Biden blasted Florida's recently passed 15-week abortion ban, saying his administration "will not stand" for the "dangerous" bill passed by the Florida Legislature.
Biden's condemnation came in a tweet on Friday morning, where he decried the Republican Party's "continued erosion of women’s constitutional rights."
Last night, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature passed a dangerous bill that will severely restrict women’s access to reproductive health care. My Administration will not stand for the continued erosion of women’s constitutional rights.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 4, 2022
DeSantis has yet to respond publicly, but his Press Secretary Christina Pushaw did retweet Biden's statement and incorrectly claim that the current system amounts to access to unfettered late-term abortions.
Fetuses at 15 weeks are far from late-term. In fact, they do not yet have fully formed lungs and their skin is translucent. Pushaw cited the fact that babies have been born a full month later as evidence for a 15-week pregnancy's viability. Even babies born at the current Florida limit of 24 weeks are extremely likely to die soon after. This is all before we get into the rights of the mother to not carry a pregnancy to term.
Why didn’t you mention that this bill is about protecting unborn babies AFTER 15 weeks? That is when they can already feel pain and they’re getting close to viability. Babies have been born at 20 weeks and survived. What you’re arguing for is unfettered LATE TERM abortion. https://t.co/yev52gRzsm
— Christina Pushaw 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) March 4, 2022
The abortion ban is not the first time that the Biden admin has felt the need to speak out about actions taken by leadership in Florida. When legislators and Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened the funding of school districts who enforced mask mandates, Biden promised to provide federal funds to any effected schools.
More recently, Biden called the state's controversial bill barring discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in primary schools "hateful."
Gov. DeSantis has indicated that he would sign the abortion ban, calling the new regulations "warranted" during a press conference on Friday.
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