AG candidate Daniel Uhlfelder: Floridians deserve 'the right to choose' | Guestview

Last week our country was shaken by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, paving the way for total abortion bans across the country.

The unaccountable, deeply politicized Supreme Court walked back a precedent that has preserved a woman’s right to choose for the past 50 years. They changed the law to force women to carry pregnancies to term against their will — no matter the impact on them, their community or even the child.

As your next attorney general, I will act as a firewall to prevent the enforcement of any abortion ban being enacted here in Florida. Floridians deserve an attorney general who will fiercely defend their freedoms, including the right to choose. Let me be crystal clear where I stand: I will never investigate nor prosecute anyone for receiving an abortion nor any health care professional for providing access to this important procedure.

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To me, the role of government is simple: to provide necessary services to the people, to ensure we have an economy that puts working families first, to keep our communities safe and then to get out of the way.

Abortion bans are massive government overreach. They are un-American — they fly in the face of the principles of freedom that make us great. The decision of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, like every other health decision, belongs between a woman and her doctor. Republicans may want the government to have power in that decision, but the American people do not. I am siding with the people.

The Republican Party has become more and more extreme — now stooping so low to support abortion bans without exception, including in cases of rape, incest and when a woman’s life is at risk. Our current attorney general, Ashley Moody, celebrated this awful Supreme Court decision. Instead of standing with Florida women, Moody is siding with her increasingly extreme party.

Florida is one of the few states with an enshrined right to privacy in our state constitution, which the Florida Supreme Court has held includes the right to an abortion. Florida voters amended the constitution to guarantee that right in 1980 and reaffirmed it by ballot measure in 2012. This is something we should be proud of, but instead, Ashley Moody is colluding with Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Legislature to trample on the will of the people and limit our rights.

If our attorney general was less focused on abortion bans and more focused on consumer protections, I believe this office could be an incredible resource for Florida families. The current attorney general may choose to focus on rolling back our rights, but I would spend my time on using this office to get more money in the hands of struggling Floridians.

That’s why I am taking on Florida Power & Light, whose purchase of Gulf Power has caused our utility rates to skyrocket. It’s why when I’m elected I’m going to take on oil companies who are gouging the price of gas, corporate real estate developers who are raising rent and insurance companies that have jacked up property insurance to crisis levels. While Ashley Moody wants to get between a woman and her doctor, I’ll be way too busy fighting for the people. That should always be our attorney general’s priority.

Across the country, attorneys general have been on the front lines in the fight to defend and expand reproductive freedoms. Here in Florida, we have an attorney general who has abdicated that responsibility.

I will be a completely different kind of attorney general. I believe to my core that our government should be in the business of freedom, not of forced pregnancies. That is why I will never investigate nor prosecute someone for getting or providing an abortion. When I am attorney general, I will do everything I can to keep women and doctors safe.

My campaign is all about making lives better and easier for Florida families. This Supreme Court decision does exactly the opposite. I will fight it with everything I have.

Daniel Uhlfelder of Santa Rosa Beach is a Stanford and Florida-educated lawyer with 25 years of legal experience who has dedicated his life to fighting for civil rights. At the height of the pandemic, he gained national fame for protesting DeSantis’ COVID policies while dressed as the grim reaper. Uhlfelder is running for Florida attorney general in the August Democratic primary.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Uhlfelder vows to not enforce statewide abortion ban if elected AG