The Biden administration has clashed repeatedly with DeSantis during the last two years, however Harris’ look only a mile from the state Capitol appeared to sign the next degree of engagement with the governor, who’s considered as the highest challenger to former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.
Earlier than Harris took the stage on the Moon nightclub in Tallahassee, attendees within the viewers chanted “Hey ho, DeSantis has to go.”
Harris, in her remarks, criticized the DeSantis administration after Florida well being regulators advised well being care suppliers they may danger legal prices in the event that they distributed abortion tablets. That warning — which went to pharmacies — was distributed after the FDA dropped long-standing restrictions that banned the abortion tablet from being bought at retail pharmacies.
President Joe Biden despatched out a memo on Sunday calling on federal companies to take a look at obstacles of sufferers accessing abortion tablets, establishing the likelihood that the administration might take motion someday sooner or later.
The DeSantis administration didn’t reply to questions on Harris’s feedback. The Republican Social gathering of Florida put out a press release that acknowledged “Democrats are proudly cheerleading barbaric insurance policies to permit unrestricted abortions — together with infanticide. That’s all anybody must know.”
Democrats had been in a position in lots of states to impress voters within the midterms over abortion, however DeSantis crushed his Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, in November by practically 20 factors. Crist spent weeks highlighting abortion restrictions within the run-up to the November elections.
Florida’s Legislature final 12 months handed a controversial ban on abortion after 15 weeks with out exceptions for rape and incest. A authorized problem to it’s being thought-about by the state Supreme Courtroom. DeSantis supported the ban and has mentioned he backs abortion restrictions past the present regulation, though he has stopped wanting specifics.
Harris zeroed in on the legal guidelines handed in Florida and different states as “designed by extremists.” She known as the Florida regulation a “a radical abortion ban with no exceptions, even for the survivors of crimes like rape and baby molestation and human trafficking.”
However it’s not clear what GOP legislators plan to do. Florida Home Speaker Paul Renner late final week was non-committal about what lawmakers would do subsequent, saying that whereas there’s a “pro-life majority” within the Home that “now we have not finalized something in that regard.” Renner mentioned some members had been supportive of the present restrictions, whereas others needed to limit entry additional. Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) beforehand mentioned she helps limiting abortions after 12 weeks of being pregnant however with exceptions for victims of rape and incest.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the Home Democratic chief, “totally anticipates” legislators will tighten the state’s present ban so as to help a DeSantis presidential run.
“DeSantis is working for president in 2024,” mentioned Driskell shortly after Harris spoke. “He controls every little thing in that constructing.”
Harris’ speech was given inside a nightclub situated a mile from the Florida Capitol as a result of menace of rain and dangerous climate. Nikki Fried, Florida’s former agriculture commissioner who attended the occasion, mentioned that each Florida State College — and Florida A&M College, a traditionally Black faculty and college — turned down requests to have Harris seem on campus.
Fried she had been working with Deliberate Parenthood on an occasion noting the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and was requested to assist with logistics as soon as the White Home confirmed that Harris was coming to city.
Fried steered that the faculties turned down Harris as a result of the establishments feared angering DeSantis, however Dennis Schnittker, assistant vice chairman of communications for Florida State College, mentioned the college “was unable to accommodate the Vice President attributable to beforehand scheduled occasions and operations.”