The left is mourning the activation of Florida’s heartbeat law this week, which will protect the lives of 50,000 unborn children annually. With a constitutional amendment up for a vote that would undo the lifesaving law, Democrats like state Sen. Lauren Book are in full fearmongering spin mode. As Book recently told CBS Miami, “Women and girls will die.”
Kamala Harris will be in Jacksonville on Wednesday when the law takes effect with the same message, following her boss’s visit to Tampa, where Joe Biden made the sign of the cross during a speech calling for unlimited abortion.
Between now and November, the media will try to obscure the facts on the heartbeat law and the exceptions that exist by calling it a “near total ban.” This is despite the fact that Florida’s law not only has a life of the mother exception that allows pregnant women to receive the emergency care they always have, but also rape, incest, fetal anomaly, and human trafficking exceptions.
The media will also fail to acknowledge that the heartbeat law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis one year ago follows both science and public opinion. The law is popular with 62 percent of Floridians supporting, including 58 percent of women and 76 percent of Hispanic voters. Around six weeks, a baby’s heart beats about 110 beats per minute. Once a heartbeat is detected, a baby has over a 90 percent chance of surviving to birth.
On the other hand, the abortion ballot measure to amend the state Constitution would leave Florida with what DeSantis rightly calls a California-style abortion amendment. The broad language of this measure creates a right to abortion during all nine months of pregnancy.
As confirmed by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times, girls who aren’t old enough to get their ears pierced on their own will be able to obtain an abortion without a parent’s consent. The health and safety requirements for abortion facilities would be eviscerated by this amendment. Abortions won’t need to be performed by doctors, and abortion facilities won’t need to be near hospitals or have hospital admitting privileges, putting women at serious risk. If anything, Florida’s abortion industry needs more regulation, not less. A Pensacola facility was shut down after sending multiple women to the hospital in 2022, and 25 percent of the industry was fined last year during annual inspections.
The ballot measure serves the abortion industry’s profit motive by removing everything that impedes them from making money at the expense of babies’ lives and women’s safety: taking the consent of parents out of the picture, undoing all health regulations on their industry, and allowing abortions to occur whenever — first, second, and third trimesters.
It’s no wonder that Mona Reis, owner of a large abortion facility, is behind this radical measure and that a number of abortionists and those who collect a paycheck from Planned Parenthood are funding it. Nearly one-third of the total money raised for this initiative comes straight from the abortion industry, which can afford to pour millions into ballot measures like Florida’s because they will see an ROI. When Planned Parenthood makes $1.9 billion in a year, it’s just a line item in their marketing budget.
The activation of the heartbeat law marks an enormous victory in the human rights battle of our time, in Florida and the nation as a whole. We can celebrate the boys and girls who will live because of Florida’s heartbeat law and the ways they will bless their families, friends, and communities.
Florida is already the home to one little boy whose life was saved by a heartbeat law. In the neighboring state of Georgia, a woman named Neesha chose life because when she called to set up an appointment for an abortion, she was told she was passed the cutoff under the state’s law protecting unborn children. As a result, she gave birth to a sweet baby boy who was adopted by a family in Florida, and she says she’s thankful the law was in place and that she gave life to her son.
Florida is providing more help to mothers like Neesha who experience an unplanned pregnancy through the heartbeat bill’s allocation of $25 million for pregnancy centers. These centers offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, medical exams, counseling, parent classes, financial classes, and resources such as food, diapers, clothing, and financial assistance for housing and utilities. Florida’s pregnancy centers serve tens of thousands of women and will be able to expand their services to moms thanks to funding from the heartbeat law.
Democrats will do everything they can to prevent a repeat of Florida’s 2022 red wave, and they think abortion is their golden ticket. As one CNN headline put it, “Biden looks to use abortion rights to put Florida in play.” The reality is Republicans in Florida need to be as invested as their opponents on the issue of abortion, or they will lose. Candidates must defend babies with a heartbeat by telling stories like Neesha’s, emphasizing the pro-life safety net, and contrasting their pro-life position with the all-trimester abortion amendment. If Republicans do this right in Florida and elsewhere, they will be victorious up and down the ballot.
Kelsey Pritchard is a mother of three and the state public affairs director for SBA Pro-Life America.
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