Sen. Rick Scott Says Florida’s Abortion Ballot Measure Is a Gimmick to Turn Out Women Voters

“That was probably the intention of doing the abortion amendment, is try to get women out to vote and vote against Republicans,” the Republican senator said of Amendment 4—which received at least 150,000 signatures from Republicans to get on the ballot.

By Kylie Cheung  |  September 24, 2024 | 1:12pm
AbortionPolitics
Sen. Rick Scott Says Florida’s Abortion Ballot Measure Is a Gimmick to Turn Out Women Voters

In April, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that an abortion rights proposal could be included on the November ballot. The ballot measure, Amendment 4, overcame significant legal barriers and had to receive hundreds of thousands of signatures—including at least 150,000 from registered Republicans—to qualify. Florida currently enforces a six-week ban, which has decimated abortion access across the South. 

But according to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Amendment 4 isn’t a hard-fought, bipartisan effort to restore access to health care in the state—it’s a gimmick from Democratic Party strategists to turn out women voters. In a Monday night Zoom call, Scott fielded questions from supporters, including one about his strategy to address the fact that Amendment 4 will likely mobilize more women voters in the state. “I think that was probably the intention of doing the abortion amendment, is try to get women out to vote and vote against Republicans,” Scott said in audio obtained by Jezebel. 

Scott went on to reveal his strategy to combat this supposed scheme, which is to spread grotesque lies about what abortion is: “I talk about how extreme the Democrats are, how they want to have abortion up until the moment before a baby, a nine-month term, by crushing a baby’s skull. They’ve all voted to allow a healthy baby born alive to just cry itself to the death in the corner by starving itself to death.”

None of Scott’s comments—from his cynical appraisal of Amendment 4’s purpose, to his graphic lies about abortion—make any sense. For one thing, the Florida secretary of state’s office on Tuesday released the official summary of Amendment 4 that will appear on the ballot, and it’s rife with deceptive language about abortion, blatantly lying that the amendment would cost taxpayers if passed, and falsely claiming that abortions are on the rise in the state. 

Florida’s near-total abortion ban has upended the state’s health system, not to mention the entire region’s access to a critical health service. In June, the Florida Access Network (FAN) abortion fund said that the average distance their callers now have to travel for abortion is over 900 miles. The closest state where Floridians can get abortion—and even then, only through 12 weeks—is North Carolina. FAN called Florida’s ban “the biggest change in the abortion access landscape” since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Amendment 4 isn’t a ploy to help Democrats win elections. It’s an urgent attempt to correct a GOP-made crisis.

Scott’s lies about Amendment 4 are on par with what we’ve been seeing from Florida Republicans, who are doing their utmost to spread disinformation and suppress the vote. Earlier this month, Florida voters said Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has sent police officers to their homes to question whether their signatures supporting the measure were obtained by fraud. DeSantis’ taxpayer-funded Agency for Health Care Administration also launched a web page earlier this month with the specific purpose of spreading disinformation about the ballot measure. The web page lies that Florida’s abortion ban “protects women” and that Amendment 4 “threatens women’s safety.” 

Across the country, abortion ballot measures have faced rampant suppression tactics from anti-abortion activists and government officials—from harassment and doxxing campaigns against organizers as they collect signatures, to activists posing as government officials and asking voters to retract their signatures. All of this is happening for one simple reason: Abortion rights are popular and forced birth is not. 

In Florida, DeSantis and Scott’s efforts stem from desperation. Polling from the last several weeks shows strong support for Amendment 4, ranging from 55 percent to 69 percent of voters, though the ballot measure will need at least 60 percent of the vote to succeed under Florida law. In his own race, Scott, who has expressed support for Florida’s ban, faces a competitive challenge from former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D). One poll last week showed him just four points ahead of her.

As for Scott’s insane lines about abortion “crushing” skulls, and “healthy babies” born alive “to just cry” themselves “to death in the corner,” the pure delusion of it all would almost be comical if it weren’t so dangerous. This is precisely the sort of language that gets abortion providers harassed, attacked, and in some cases, killed. Just last month, Scott shamelessly said a version of this to reporters: “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.” As I wrote in August, I in fact “can’t believe it” because it literally isn’t happening.

In recent elections, Florida has proven a Republican stronghold. But Scott is right about one thing: Abortion rights appear to be a mobilizing issue in the state this year, and no amount of cynical conspiracy theories and horror-fantasy stories about Amendment 4 are going to change that.

 
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