Biden calls Texas abortion law ‘un-American’ as Florida considers its own
President Biden on Friday called a Texas abortion law “almost un-American” as Florida considers emulating its restrictions after the Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge.
Biden said he asked the Justice Department to look at ways to block the Texas law’s $10,000 reward for informing on people who help women get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
“I have been [and] continue to be a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade,” Biden said at the White House.
“The most pernicious thing about the Texas law: It sort of creates a vigilante system where people get rewards… And it just seems — I know this sounds ridiculous — almost un-American, what we’re talking about.”
Biden said, “I respect them… those who believe life begins at the moment of conception and all. I respect that. Don’t agree, but I respect that.”
But he added that “I was told that there are possibilities within the existing law to have the Justice Department look and see whether there are things that can be done that can limit the independent action of individuals in enforcing… a state law.”
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear a case that challenged the Texas law.
Republican Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson confirmed that the Sunshine State would be likely joining other states in passing anti-abortion legislation, he told WFLA on Thursday.
“When the Supreme Court goes out and makes a decision like this, it clearly is going to send a signal to all the states that are interested in banning abortions or making it more restrictive to have an abortion in their state, it’s certainly going to make us take a look at those issues,” Simpson said.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal filed by abortion providers in an attempt to block the Texas abortion bill that went into effect the same day.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) signed the law in May to prohibit women from getting an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
The law does not make exceptions for rape or incest survivors.
Florida State Senator Annette Taddeo, a Democrat, said new restrictions violate a woman’s privacy rights
“Understand what Florida Republicans want to do: They want to give rapists the right to sue their victims to stop them from getting an abortion – and to be able to collect money from their victims who try to have an abortion,” Taddeo said in a statement to NBC6. “If Republicans get their way, rapists will have more power over this decision than the victim.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said Thursday he supports anti-abortion legislation and would be looking into changing state law.
“What they did in Texas was interesting. And I haven’t really been able to look enough about it. They’ve basically done this through private right of action, so it’s a little bit different than how a lot of these debates have gone — so we’ll have to look, I’m going to look more significantly at it,” DeSantis said.
