On Tuesday afternoon at Hillsborough Community College’s the Louisiana resident told a room of about 200 Joe Biden supporters, local politicos and elected officials about how her joy about a second child turned into a nightmare after mild cramping and spotting became major blood loss.
“I drove myself to the emergency room. I was having a miscarriage, but because of the state's abortion ban the health care team was afraid to tell me what was happening,” she said. “They sent me home saying they would pray for me.”
Still losing blood, Joshua said she met her mom at another hospital in Baton Rouge and was put in a wheelchair by a security guard. The care she sought for the miscarriage is the same as abortion care, Joshua explained. The second hospital told her to go home and wait. It was weeks before she was able to get any emergency care.
“This experience has made me see firsthand how Black women die without proper maternal care,” Joshua said.
In July 2022, a Louisiana appeals court ruled the state’s strict “trigger ban” on abortion — which calls for 10- and 15-year prison sentences for doctors convicted of providing abortion — must be reinstated as legal challenges play out.
When Florida’s six-week ban goes into place, anyone who willfully performs or actively participates in an abortion outside of the restrictions could be charged with a third-degree felony, punishable by fines and imprisonment of five years, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
A bill filed last year by Florida Sen. Lauren Book tried to keep women from being jailed over Florida’s abortion bans, but it died in committee, so it’s still unclear how or if a pregnant person will be held liable.
Still, Florida voters have a chance to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution during November’s general election by voting yes on Amendment 4. Language in the amendment says, in part:
No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.Passage of the amendment would likely lead to more legal battles, but President Joe Biden, who appeared at the podium after Joshua, hopes the issue drives Floridians to polls — delivering a victory not just for Biden, but for candidates up and down the ballot.
“This is bizarre,” Biden said about Florida’s abortion ban.
In less than 13 minutes, the president mentioned his opponent Donald Trump nearly two dozen times, reminding supporters how the former president, presumptive GOP nominee, and impeached insurrection-inciter seated U.S. Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“He described the Dobbs decision as a miracle,” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it comes from that Bible he’s trying to sell — I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell’s in it.”
Biden said the decision was no act of god. “It was a political deal he made with the Evangelical base of the Republican party to look past his moral and character flaws in exchange for his commitment to appoint justices to the supreme court who would overturn Roe,” the president said. “Don't think he's [not] making a deal right now with MAGA extremists to ban nationwide abortion in every single state, because he's making it.”
Gambling his election on abortion rights will be a tricky game in Florida this fall.
As of April 9, Republicans in Florida hold a 892,034 advantage in active registered voters over Democrats. And while there are more than 3.5 million voters who have no party affiliation, Biden’s handling of Israel’s plausibly genocidal response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas has made him deeply unpopular with progressive members of his own party.
While garden variety pro-life activists waved signs on campus at Hillsborough Community College, a pro-Palestinian contingent held a “No genocide Joe” demonstration nearby in protest of the billions of dollars in military aid the U.S. has sent to Israel.
