Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is up for re-election this fall, called his Democratic challenger a “liar” after the Democratic candidate accused the one-term senator of supporting a nationwide abortion ban. He said that. This year, he will face Republicans in battleground Senate districts.
Scott has been criticized by former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Florida) over abortion rights, but Democrats do not want to put any real restrictions on abortion and are holding back on abortion rights until the last minute. He aggressively claims that he intends to admit it. The moment of birth.
“She's a socialist and a liar. She's not concerned about the truth. She'll say anything to win an election. I'm pro-life. I'm on the side of babies and families. I love my grandchildren, I love my daughters. I'm a baby advocate,” Scott said in an interview with The Hill in response to Mucarsel Powell's attack.
Scott said that while he opposes abortion in most cases, “there should be exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.”
He argued that his positions on hot-button issues are more nuanced than those of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
“Mr. Harris, Mr. Biden, and my opponents in Miami believe there should be no limits – zero limits, zero limits, no limits. [on abortion] All the way up until the moment I was nine months old,” he said.
“They want unlimited abortion and she's an extremist. She's using politics as usual,” he added of his opponent. “She lies when she says I support a national ban. She lies when she says Republicans want to put women in prison. She lies when she says Republicans want to ban IVF. And she's lying,” Scott added, referring to IVF.
A spokesperson for the Mucarsel-Powell campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats argue that late-term abortions are extremely rare and usually only performed when there are serious medical complications and the mother's health is at risk.
Scott, who is likely to be the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Florida, Mucarsel-Powell, wrote in an op-ed for the Miami Herald that Donald Trump will be elected president, Republicans will win the Senate majority and the House of Representatives. Scott made the comments after he claimed he would support a national abortion ban if the .
He also noted that Scott, who served as Florida's governor from 2011 to 2019, said he would sign the six-week statewide abortion ban that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year. Mentioned.
“Mr. Scott and Mr. Trump intend to ban abortion nationwide and have laid out a concrete plan to prevent women in all 50 states from having access to medical abortion,” she wrote.
Mucarsel-Powell noted that nearly 1 million Floridians have signed a petition to amend the state constitution to protect reproductive rights in the state, but “codifying abortion in the state constitution is not an option. “However, it will not be able to counter the federal government's ban on abortion.”
Sounding the alarm about possible abortion bans is a strategy Democrats are employing in other Senate battleground states, such as Michigan.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said this week that a national abortion ban could invalidate amendments to state constitutions guaranteeing abortion and other reproductive health care rights. I warned you that there is.
But Scott said he believes abortion regulation should be left up to each state, with no role for the federal government.
“I believe states should make decisions about how to regulate abortion. I also know that access needs to be easier and more affordable. must make adoption a viable option,” he said. “My heart goes out to the women who are going through this. I know it's an incredibly difficult issue for women.”
Asked whether Trump should explicitly oppose a national abortion ban, Scott, a Trump ally, said: “Everyone has to run their own campaign and sell what they believe in.'' ” he said.
“As we get into the race he'll know exactly where he is,” he added.
In an interview with NBC's “Meet the Press” in September, President Trump said he didn't care whether abortion was regulated at the federal or state level.
“It could be a state thing, it could be a federal thing, but frankly I don't care,” Trump told NBC anchor Kristen Welker.
Asked at the time if he supported a 15-week abortion ban, President Trump said: I will work with all groups to create something acceptable. ”
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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pushing ahead with a nationwide abortion ban because even if Republicans regain the Senate majority, they won't have 60 votes in the Senate to overcome the filibuster. He said there was no chance that it would pass Congress.
Regarding Florida's six-week abortion ban and whether he signed it into law as governor of Florida, Scott said: “I signed the pro-life bill that I thought was best for the state.” [as governor.] I have continued to fight for pro-life policies. ”
As governor in 2016, Scott signed legislation that cut funding for family planning, banned the sale and purchase of aborted fetal remains, and required doctors to have hospital transfer and admission privileges to perform abortions. .
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