Ohio's clear message: Abortion choice is ours to make, not politicians' | Commentary
For those of you who missed the headlines, this past week, Ohio’s ham-fisted referendum to make it harder to amend the State Constitution went down in flames. Voter turnout skyrocketed — the Tuesday turnout exceeded the most recent August election a year prior by five times over. The Buckeye State's resounding defeat of Issue 1 is one more clarion cry that citizens do not want politicians inserting themselves into in the personal health care decisions of its citizens.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court passage of the Dobbs decision in June 2022, more than 20 states have banned or severely restricted abortion care. Republican state legislatures ramrodded new laws and regulations aimed directly at criminalizing healthcare providers and forcing pregnancies. It didn’t matter that the one-size-fits-all bills don’t work for real life patients and their doctors. And it mattered even less, we saw, that state after state was passing abortion bans without considering — more like, considering but not caring about — the pregnant person’s life.
Tallahassee Tally: How Palm Beach County lawmakers voted on key bills. Today: Abortion.
Right here in Florida, Gov. DeSantis and the Florida Legislature followed in lockstep with other states, stepping up the already onerous 15-week abortion ban to 6 weeks. The tragic examples of Florida residents like Deborah and Lee Dobert’s agonizing pregnancy raised no concern for the politicians who doubled down on Florida’s abortion ban. The Doberts learned of a life-ending diagnosis of Potter’s Syndrome at the 23rd week of their pregnancy. Their beloved and wanted baby had no kidneys and had a zero chance of surviving beyond a couple hours after their birth. Despite a second opinion by yet another physician to terminate the pregnancy, Florida’s abortion ban penalties risks were too great for their obstetrician to move forward in providing the recommended abortion care. The threat of punishment up to five years, exorbitant fines, legal costs, and loss of medical license served as a chilling prospect for Florida healthcare providers. What came next was horrific — a forced delivery following months of carrying a doomed pregnancy to term only to watch their baby die before their eyes.
Why I got an abortion: 6 Palm Beach County women tell their stories
Horror cases like Florida’s Doberts' are reported almost weekly in national news. Meanwhile Republican’s like Gov. DeSantis and his Florida cronies deflect from the insidiousness of the abortion ban itself and shift blame to doctors , claiming there are abortion exceptions. The fact is these so-called exceptions are not real. Florida’s abortion ban, like so many bans across the country, was intentionally vague, with the real aim to sanitize their heartless legislation. Guttmacher Institute’s Elizabeth Nash said it best: “Exceptions function mainly as PR tools to make abortion bans seem less cruel than they are and distract from the inhumanity of the ban itself."
Let's be uber clear: Floridians — not politicians — should make their own decisions about their healthcare. Politicians do not have medical training to assess the individualized risks to a patient’s health of carrying a pregnancy to term. This is not a left or right issue or about Democrats or Republicans. Here in Florida, the overwhelming majority of voters believe they should be able to make their own medical decisions without government interference. Stand up for personal freedom by placing this amendment on the 2024 ballot. Learn more at www.FloridiansProtectingFreedom.com.
Lillian Tamayo, a member of the Palm Beach Post Editorial Advisory Board, is former President/CEO at Planned Parenthood South, East and North Florida.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Abortion: Most Americans don't want bans, despite Dobbs ruling
