In the News
ICYMI: Florida Sen. Rick Scott Thinks Abortion Is a ‘Healthy Baby Crying Itself to Death’ [Jezebel]
New reporting from Jezebel shows Rick Scott is scrambling to defend his extreme anti-abortion record by spewing dangerous lies. From endorsing Florida’s abortion ban to voting for a national ban that would put doctors in prison, Scott’s “100% pro-life” record is wildly out of step with Floridians, who overwhelmingly support women’s right to make their own personal medical decisions.
Click here to read the story. See key excerpts below:
- Asserting his “pro-life” identity, Scott told reporters at the roundtable, “Democrats are extreme. They support allowing a baby born, healthy, born alive, to just cry itself to death. It’s extreme, you just can’t believe it.” You’re right, Rick: I can’t believe something that isn’t happening!
- As much as I’d like to laugh off Scott’s bizarre, far-right fan-fic of an abortion definition, language like this—equating abortion with killing babies—is exactly what gets abortion providers targeted, threatened, and even killed by anti-abortion extremists.
- Scott’s also spent this election running an ad exploiting his daughter’s personal IVF story, in order to posture as supporting the fertility treatment, all while voting against a bill to codify a federal right to IVF.
- And even though Scott has long dodged questions about a national abortion ban on the campaign trail, he co-sponsored a national, 20-week abortion ban in 2020.
- Over recent election cycles, Florida has become something of a Republican stronghold. But in addition to the popularity and momentum surrounding Amendment 4, the closeness of Scott’s own reelection race suggests abortion—which Scott, again, thinks is a baby “[crying] itself to death”—could deeply impact which way the state swings in November.