DeSantis spent about 20 seconds on abortion restrictions during a 40-minute address to a gala for a major advocate of Florida’s new six-week ban.
with little fanfare this spring, was a massive victory for the social conservatives DeSantis is courting heading into 2024 — but some Republicans worry he’s gone too far to the right on an issue that could hurt them in the general election.
“We believe that everybody counts, everybody is special — and our Heartbeat Protection Act shows that we say what we mean and we mean what we say,” DeSantis said at the gala in Orlando, using the official title of the six-week ban. He called it “a landmark piece of legislation for this state” and said “there’s much more to do.
The comments come as DeSantis and other Republicans are facing pressure from their base to tighten abortion laws while also encountering concerns from some political strategists, donors and others in the party that they will pay a political price for embracing strict bans. Many Democrats found success in the midterms running on a platform of protecting abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion.
DeSantis also declined to tout the 6-week ban in an April speech at Liberty University, a deeply conservative evangelical institution, which came just after he’d approved the bill in a late night closed-door signing.DeSantis allies believe his strict stance on abortion will help distinguish him from former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination.
“I was proud to do it,” DeSantis said of signing the ban. Trump, he added, “won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”
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