DeSantis suggests Trump out of touch with GOP over opposition to Florida’s 6-week abortion ban
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit out at former President Donald Trump Tuesday for his opposition to Florida’s six-week abortion ban, arguing that the 45th president was out of touch with Republicans and conservatives on the issue.
“Protecting an unborn child when there is a detectable heartbeat is something that probably 99% of pro-lifers support,” DeSantis told reporters in Broward County.
In an interview with The Messenger published Monday, Trump called Florida’s legislation “too harsh” and declined to say if he would have approved the law.
“I think that as a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about ‘would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did?’” DeSantis responded in one of his most pointed criticisms of his former ally. “It had all the exceptions that people talk about. The legislature put it in. I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”
DeSantis, 44, appears poised to elevate the abortion debate into a central campaign issue in his likely face-off with the 76-year-old Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Later this week, the governor will give the keynote address at the Florida Family Policy Council’s annual dinner. The FFPC bills itself as the “leading pro-life, pro-family” organization in the Sunshine State.
Florida previously banned abortions after 15 weeks before paring the timeframe down to six weeks.
The measure — which won’t go into effect until the Supreme Court rules on a challenge to the prior 15-week ban — includes exceptions for rape, incest and some pregnancies related to human trafficking.
Democrats and pro-choice groups have pilloried the law, arguing that it impinges on women’s reproductive rights.
Backers argue that a fetus with a detectable heartbeat should be given a chance to live.
While popular with many conservatives, some Republican officials have fretted that a strict stance on abortion could prove to be an electoral liability. DeSantis and his advisors appear to have made the opposite calculation.
Trump’s stance on abortion is ironic since he nominated three of the five Supreme Court justices who voted last year to overturn Roe v. Wade — Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.