Abortion on the ballot in Florida -- where's Trump?

The decision of the Florida Supreme Court to allow a vote on a citizen initiative inserting a right to abortion in the state constitution raises many interesting possibilities.

According to Ballotpedia:

The initiative would provide a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability (estimated to be around 24 weeks) or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.

Everywhere, even in red states like Ohio and Kansas, such "right to abortion" measures have won popular majorities when offered to the electorate. We, the majority, really don't want the Supreme Court telling legislatures they can mess with our bodies! 

The Florida measure faces a slightly more difficult hurdle than these other reproductive rights efforts. Instead of a mere majority, state rules mean that the pro-choice side needs 60 percent to win. Polls show this as tough, but possible. 

So now Florida politicians and Floridians are going to have to figure out how to navigate a campaign in which abortion rights are center stage.

Democrats and the Biden campaign are teasing that this measure puts the state in play for Democrats. Seems improbable; the state Florida Dem party is a mess, Republicans have a 800,000 person registration advantage, failed GOP presidential aspirant Ron DeSantis won the place by 20 points in 2022. But Democrats can and should have a great time demanding that Republican candidates state a clear position on the abortion measure. It divides their base. Even Republican voters will be giving the measure a small majority according to polls, while Dems and Indies do the rest; the anti-abortion side will be rabid.  

And then there's Florida resident Donald Trump. Where does he stand? Anywhere he can escape the question, apparently. According to Aaron Blake in the Washington Post:

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has responded to this development with all the political certainty of a college freshman running for class president. And his hemming and hawing — even after effectively locking up the Republican nomination — speaks volumes about how much this sudden liability of an issue looms over the GOP’s 2024 hopes.

Trump’s campaign initially put out a statement Monday saying merely, “President Trump supports preserving life but has also made clear that he supports states’ rights, because he supports the voters’ right to make decisions for themselves.”

It’s great to support the democratic process — something that isn’t always a given with Trump — but that statement basically says nothing about his own view on the issue at hand. And when asked for more specificity Tuesday about Florida’s six-week ban, Trump played a familiar card: I’ll tell you later.

“We’ll be making a statement next week on abortion,” Trump said.

Translation: I really don’t want to talk about this, and I need to figure out my position.

... Of course, it’s no secret what’s really going on here. Trump fears this issue; he has repeatedly suggested that Republicans lose elections by going too extreme on it. .. .Trump clearly doesn’t want that to happen to him. But it’s not as if he can spend the next seven months punting on this issue. And the fact that he still doesn’t have a good, ready-made answer a month after wrapping up the GOP nomination suggests that perhaps there just isn’t one.

We need to continue to demand that the media ask Trump where he stands. 

And, if we can, to help Floridians Protecting Freedom win their campaign.  

• • •

Florida was the venue for one of my best 2020 election experiences. That pandemic year, I locked myself down at home working on the UniteHERE national phone bank. Early on, we took a few shifts calling sympathetic Floridians who someone thought might need help with how to navigate voting procedures. (Like most red states, Florida makes voting a confusing jumbles of procedural rules.)

One young woman I reached answered her phone while partying after work with her buddies in a bar. (I don't know why she answered her; people just do sometimes.) She wasn't much interested in talking about voting mechanics -- but then decided she'd test me.

"If I put my phone on speaker, will you call out to all the people in the bar?" she asked.

"Sure," says I.

So she yelled she had someone with a message. 

I hollered at the top of my lungs: "Fuck Donald Trump!" Great cheers ensued. 

I hope they all figured out how to vote ...

• • •

Sure hope the Florida campaign wins. If the new constitutional provision fails, that sharp-eyed observer of all legal perversions, Slate's Mark Joseph Stern warns that the Florida Supreme Court might decide to declare the fetal personhood of all embryos, banning not only all abortions, but also IVF and other pregnancy medical treatments. Scary times.