Today, as an extreme abortion ban takes effect in Florida, Team Biden-Harris and women across the country are holding Donald Trump accountable for the state’s ban, and others like it across the country, which are a direct result of his overturning of Roe v. Wade.
This morning, President Biden directly responded in a new digital video, blasting Donald Trump for saying that states should be allowed to monitor women’s pregnancies and to punish women who seek abortion care. Women across America also joined in, slamming Trump and telling their stories of how these extreme abortion bans impact their health, lives, and freedom.
Today, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Jacksonville, Florida, where she spoke directly to voters about how attacks on reproductive health care are harming women across the country.
On the Airwaves
Texas Patient Amanda Zurawski on CNN’s News Central: “I can’t believe that this is our reality. … Many women don’t know that they’re pregnant at six weeks. This ban is absolutely harrowing, and it’s terrifying, and it’s a result of Donald Trump and his policies. The longer his policies are in place, the more of these bans are going to be passed. … If [Trump’s] reelected, this will be our national situation. … [Trump] is endorsing what happened to me, he’s endorsing people who seek abortions getting punished. … We know this is because of him because he elected the Supreme Court justices that allowed the fall of Roe v. Wade … that put the right back in the states who are making these insane, draconian laws. … Trump continues to endorse these crazy bans, by saying this is how it should be. … [Trump] also failed to say whether he would protect IVF. … It’s a critical issue … he knows that most Americans do not support the policies and bans. … He is trying to walk back things that he knows are unpopular but all you have to do is look at his track record. … He will endorse a national ban … and who knows how much further he will go beyond that.”
Biden-Harris 2024 National Advisory Board Member Senator Elizabeth Warren on MSNBC’s Morning Joe: “This all started with Donald Trump, and if Donald Trump makes it back to the White House, it just multiplies and gets worse and worse and worse. You know, Donald Trump bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. He is the one who put that extremist Supreme Court in place. And he continues, when he’s in front of the right audience, to brag about that. …For me, this is one of the biggest contrasts between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the one who is responsible for getting rid of Roe v. Wade and all of the calamitous effects from that. Joe Biden is the one who will lead us to make Roe v. Wade law of the land again, so that women will be protected. They and their doctors will make decisions, not some politician. …He’s in that fight right now. U.S. military who are stationed in states that ban abortion, Joe Biden has made sure that they will still have access to reproductive care. The Veterans Administration has started expanding to abortion services and Joe Biden is in the courts right now making sure that at least we’re making the argument to keep medication abortion available everywhere.”
Reproductive Freedom for All President Mini Timmaraju on MSNBC’s Reports: “It just goes to show everything folks in our movement have been saying about what would happen with a Trump presidency is absolutely true. You know, in the last few weeks, we have seen the Trump campaign and the candidate himself try to really shift their messaging on abortion because they know it’s a losing issue for them in the ballot. For example in Arizona calling for a repeal. But then this ‘TIME’ interview comes out and it makes it abundantly clear that Trump has always been aligned with the most extreme elements of the Republican Party. The folks who are behind this Project 2025 effort to try to outlaw abortion beyond the Supreme Court without Congress by invoking old laws like the Comstock Act for example, outlawing medication abortion. And Trump has been on the record multiple times now, about prosecuting patients and providers. So look, we have a very clear contrast come November. It’s really important that we not let Trump hide behind these vagaries. He’s made it really clear that he wants to leave this up to the states and listen if it’s up to the states we’re going to see things like Texas and Florida. It’s important to note only one candidate is talking about restoring and codifying Roe and that is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
Florida maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Shelly Tien on MSNBC Reports: “If we have these exceptions that are very, very narrow, that absolutely don’t encapsulate or speak true lived medical circumstances and that come with them threats of persecution, prosecution, fines, imprisonment, loss of license, well, of course, physicians and healthcare systems aren’t going to want to risk that.”
Meg Tirrell on CNN’s Newsroom: “We’re here at this clinic called a Woman’s Choice in Jacksonville. We spoke with a patient who was there to obtain a medication abortion. She is a mother of two children already and she said she would prefer to only be identified by her first name Candace and not to have her face on camera for privacy reasons. But here’s what she told us about the impact of the ban on her and others like her.”
Florida Patient Candace: “I’ve experienced traumatic births and went on to have two healthy children but it was very touch and go, it was high risk. And now being over that 35 mark it’s even more high risk for me to get pregnant. So it’s very scary that these laws are being put into place, you know, and my life matters and it’s just a tough thing to have to go through. I don’t think anybody plans to do something like this until it happens to them and they’re faced with that decision. …I wasn’t really aware that it was so soon that this wall was going into, you know, until effects when they first I was kind of blown away.”
Florida State Senator Lauren Book on CNN’s News Central: “It is a devastating day for women across the state of Florida and quite frankly, in the Southeast. And the reality of this ban hit before today where women were being turned away from clinics because of our 24 hour waiting period and two appointments required before they can receive abortion. So the reality has really set in. It is a devastating day, a devastating time and truly horrific. When you think about 84,000 abortions happened in 2023, 51 to 54,000 of those happening after six weeks. There is going to be a huge dearth of services here for women and it is a scary time…They have three options. One, have the resources to become a medical refugee and leave our state oftentimes costing more than $2,500 having to travel to Illinois, Virginia, or Maryland, depending on where you are. Two, unfortunately, what we don’t want, women taking matters into their own hands or three, availing yourself to the rape, incest, and human trafficking exemption, which I believe, as a survivor of sexual assault, is cruel and unusual. The Republican Party in this state didn’t see fit to have that exemption… Moreover than that, abortion is health care and so if there’s any complication in a pregnancy past six weeks, doctors hands are tied and that is going to be horrifically dangerous for the women in Florida.”
CEO of A Woman’s Choice, Kelly Flynn on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer: “We’ve been preparing for this for quite some time, but mostly within the last month, once the opinion came down. Even though it happened, it went into effect today, there’s really no right way to prepare for this, to have to turn patients away, which we’ve already had to do today. We’ve turned three patients away that will have to travel thousands of miles to get their procedures done. So the staff are working hard to make sure that we can serve as many patients as possible. So it’s just a matter of us triaging and making sure that we do the proper gestational sizing according to the Florida law…Obviously with what we’re experiencing now with the way the states enforced regulations on abortion it’s just very dangerous and it’s unfortunate that physicians that practice medicine here in Florida could possibly be penalized or criminalized for treatin
