Florida Republicans Copy Texas And File Bill Limiting Reproductive Freedom For Women

Republicans in the state have followed through on their recent plan to copy Texas' assault on women's reproductive freedom by introducing a nearly-identical piece of legislation in the state. This has nothing to do with protecting life, it is simply a way for Republican politicians to pander to the low-information voters that they depend on to win elections in the state. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening and why this bill will almost certainly become a terrifying reality in Florida.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Following through on their recent, I guess suggestion that they were going to copy Texas' heartbeat bill, Republicans in Florida have now introduced legislation that is basically a carbon copy of the Texas bill. Now introduced in Florida by Florida representative Webster Barnaby. Sounds like an elitist bit of a name, right? Webster Barnaby here. But anyway, Webster Barnaby has introduced the Florida heartbeat bill that would do the same thing as Texas. Once a heartbeat is detectable in a fetus, you know, even though it's not viable on its own, if it were removed from the mother, but once the heartbeat is detected typically around six weeks, no more, no more safe legal abortions. And of course the legislation also makes sure to change in Florida's existing abortion laws the word fetus to unborn child. So that's just a little bit of, you know, trying to play on people's fears a little bit saying, oh, well you can't call it a fetus anymore.

It's an unborn child. Um, it's a cluster of developing cells that, that can't survive outside of a host body. That's what it is. But what you're doing is you're taking away the bodily autonomy of women here in the state of Florida, much like they did in Texas. At the same time, by the way, that these same Republicans are out there telling us people should be able to make choices about their own bodies with regard to a pandemic, you shouldn't force them to wear a mask. You shouldn't force them to get a shot. But by God, if you get pregnant, you have no options whatsoever. You're going to carry the baby to full term. We're going to make sure of that. But then once you have the baby, uh, you know, you're on your own. We're not going to pay for your healthcare. If the child ends up in foster care, we're going to underfund those programs and, you know, which leads to abuse and neglect and all kinds of horrible things for, for many, many children in that system.

But, uh, yeah, as long as you carry it to term, sure, we don't care because we're Republicans. And once you're born, we don't give a about you. The reason Florida Republicans are doing this, obviously they have a contentious midterm election coming up next year. They have allowed the state to be ravaged by the pandemic and they needed a solid win to shore up their base. And nothing drives these Bible belt Republicans to the polls faster than social issues led of course, by abortion. That is their number one issue. But I got to wonder, right? What happens suppose like Texas, Florida passes this and because it's a solid Republican legislature with a Republican governor, it's going to pass. This is going to become a reality here in the state of Florida. Then what? You won the culture war. What do you run on from there? You already banned transgendered athletes in the state of Florida here, transgender athletes here in the state of Florida, excuse me. So what other culture war issue can you run on? How are you going to get your base inflamed?

How are you going to get them enraged? How are you going to get a mad enough to vote for you in the future against those evil liberal Democrats? When you've already done all the things that you know how to do to get them angry. Uh-oh, you didn't think that far ahead, did you?